Next Tuesday, 23rd of September 2014, the extra motivated Celta de Vigo will entertain a frail Deportivo La Coruña at Los Balaídos on the super Derby Galego for round five of the Spanish Liga BBVA.

Last Saturday, Celta de Vigo continued their good moment at La Liga as they snatched a very important draw against the Spanish champions at Vicente Calderón. Toto Berizzo’s men put up yet another quality performance and were aided by an extremely inspired Sérgio Álvarez to secure such vital draw. Celta’s manager presented his usual 4-3-3 style but he surprised everyone by leaving Nolito on the bench and launching the Chilean attacking midfielder Pablo Hernández instead. The former O’Higgins player offered Celta’s midfield line some extra muscle and he scored a fantastic backheel goal, taking both Godin and Moya by surprise. The home side reacted to the Celestes’ exquisite goal and went to half-time winning by 2-1. Nevertheless, after the break Celta regained their confidence and got the equalizer by Nolito when he converted a penalty on the 53rd minute.

Eduardo Berizzo has been performing a fantastic work with Celta so far and it is really a delight to the eye to watch the Vigo team in action. Luis Enrique launched their first foundations last season and Berizzo knows how to take advantage from that pretty well. Celta’s attacking game style and excellent high pressure when not in possession might be the key elements to defeat Deportivo on the Derby Galego next Tuesday. Berizzo might implement some rotation in his team in order to minimize the player’s fatigue for this demanding row of matches.

As for Deportivo, last Saturday’s match against Real Madrid was a true nightmare as they were defeated by a conclusive 8-2 at Riazor. El Depor was literally ran over by an all-powerful Real Madrid and was never able to find a way of stopping the Merengues firepower. Victor Fernández, who interestingly enough enjoyed a fair deal of success while at the helm of Celta a long time ago, tried to motivate his team during the break and Depor tried to take something from the match on the first moments of the second-half but Real Madrid immediately refrained the Galician team’s intentions.

The outcome of the match against Real Madrid was probably the worst thing that could have happened to Deportivo before taking on Celta for the Derby Galego next Tuesday and Victor Fernández will need to be extra inventive to recover his players’ confidence levels.

The last time both sides met at Los Balaídos was on a friendly match during the pre-season and Los Celtistas easily won 2-0. Judging by both teams’ recent performances, Celta de Vigo are firm favourites for next Tuesday’s match, however, anything can happen in the Derby Galego.

Celta

Stats: W-2 L-0 D-3

Recent Form - DDWDW

Deportivo La Coruña

Stats: W-1 L-3 D-1

Recent Form - LWDLL

Possible Line-ups

Celta de Vigo (4-3-3) - Sérgio Álvarez - Planas - Fontàs - Cabral - Mallo - Álex Lopez - Radoja - Krohn Dehli - Orellana - Nolito - Larrivey

Deportivo La Coruña (4-1-4-1) - Lux - Laure - Diakité - Sidnei - Luisinho - Bergantinos - Juanfran - Medunjanin - Dominguez - Fariña - Postiga

Prediction

Celta de Vigo 2 Deportivo 0