Valencia CF vs Celta de Vigo Prediction, Preview & Betting Tips

Preview

Joel Amorim May 12, 2015 @ 12:07 am

Next Sunday, 17th of May 2015, a motivated Valencia will measure forces with a well organized Celta de Vigo at Mestalla for round 37 of the Spanish Liga BBVA.

Valencia put up a top quality first-half at Santiago Bernabeu last weekend on what was a very frantic match and a true anthem to football. At the end of the first 45 minutes, Los Che were up by 2-0 and when Ronaldo failed to score from the penalty spot, just before the break, no one would have guessed that Real Madrid would be able to bounce back. The truth is that they did and if it wasn’t for Valencia’s goalkeeper Diego Alves’ vintage performance and Los Merengues would have won the match. Valencia also had some good chances to score after the break but their forwards were not particularly efficient during that period of the match.

Valencia are currently on the 4th place of La Liga’s table, four points behind the current champions, Atlético Madrid, but they have not yet lost their hopes of changing places in the table with Los Colchoneros, with just two more matches to play until the end of the season.

Los Che’s next opponent will, however, be a tough bone to chew. Celta de Vigo are a very well organized team and tend to cause major problems to La Liga’s strongest teams. They did so against Barcelona at Camp Nou, with Atlético at Vicente Calderón and they will certainly do it again at Mestalla next Sunday.

As for Celta de Vigo, the Galician team is once again having a fairly positive campaign and, although they have failed to grant European football for the season to come, they are currently on a respectable 10th place with 47 points from 36 matches.

It was said that the departure of Luis Enrique to Barcelona last Summer would leave behind a void extremely difficult to fill at Los Balaídos, but the truth is that Celta have managed to find an amazingly competent manager to replace him, Eduardo “Toto” Berizzo. The Argentinean head coach has been doing an excellent job with Los Celestes and the team plays an extremely attractive attacking football.

Last weekend, with several important players sidelined due to suspension, Celta snatched a 1-1 draw against the UEFA Europa League holders at Los Balaídos, thus extending their undefeated streak to three matches.

Regardless of the Galician team’s immense quality, the home side, Valencia, are favourites to win next Sunday’s clash. Nevertheless, if we have in mind what Celta have done so far this season, it is absolutely possible that they manage to at least grant one point from their travel to Mestalla.

Valencia

Stats: W-2 L-1 D-2

Recent Form - DWDWL

Celta de Vigo

Stats: W-2 L-1 D-2

Recent Form - DDWLW

Possible Line-ups

Valencia (4-3-3) – Alves - Barragan - Mustafi - Otamendi - Gaya - Javi Fuego - Dani Parejo - André Gomes - Feghouli - Paco Alcácer - Piatti

Celta (4-3-3) - Sergio Alvarez - Mallo - Cabral - Fontás - Jonny - Augusto - Krohn-Dehli - Santi Mina - Nolito - Orellana - Larrivey

Injury List / Suspended Players

Valencia - None

Celta de Vigo - Nemanja Radoja (inj) - Borja Oubiña (inj)

Head-to-head matches:

Top Players:

Valencia - Dani Parejo - Nicolas Otamendi - Paco Alcácer

Celta de Vigo  - Nolito - Orellana  - Augusto Fernández

League Positions