Barcelona vs Valencia Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Joel Amorim Apr 15, 2016 @ 01:15 am

Next Sunday, 17th of April 2016, a somewhat fragilized Barcelona will measure forces with an extremely inconsistent Valencia at Camp Nou on the last match of Round 33 of the Spanish Liga BBVA.

It has been a week to forget for Barcelona. After the painful defeat at Anoeta last Saturday, the Catalan ended eliminated from the UEFA Champions League following a 2-0 defeat at Vicente Calderón against Atlético Madrid. Barça put up a mediocre performance and failed to impose their usual free flowing attacking game against an opponent that was once again extremely well organized at the back while also putting up some deadly counter-attacks that on most occasions caught the Catalan team red handed.

Last weekend, on the usually complicated visit to Anoeta, Barcelona failed once again to overcome Real Sociedad (the last time they did it was back in 2007) and ended up losing by 1-0. Such defeat cost Barcelona their absolute hegemony at the top of La Liga table as the Catalan team saw their rivals Atlético Madrid and Real Madrid close the gap to three and four points respectively.

For next Sunday’s match against Valencia, Luis Enrique will not be able to rely on the services of Arda Turan, who is currently suspended. Vermaelen, Sandro Ramirez and Mathieu will also miss out there due to injury.

As for Valencia, Los Che are having a season to forget and aren’t yet safe from relegation. After losing to both Celta de Vigo and UD Las Palmas, Valencia have finally returned to winning ways when they hosted Sevilla at Mestalla last time out. A late goal by Álvaro Negredo allowed Los Che to claw some valuable three points and to put an end to an extremely negative streak of results.

The match against Barcelona might not come at the best of times, especially because a win is almost mandatory for them, since it would allow them to be definitely safe from relegation. For the visit to Camp Nou, Pako Ayestarán will not be able to rely on the services of Pablo Piatti and Zakaria Bakkali. Sofiane Feghouli is currently suspended by the club and will most certainly miss the rest of the season.

Barcelona

Stats: W-1 L-3 D-1

Recent Form - LLWLD

Valencia

Stats: W-2 L-3 D-0

Recent Form - WLLWL

Possible Line-ups

Barcelona (4-3-3) - Bravo - Roberto - Pique - Mascherano - Alba - Busquets - Rakitic - Iniesta - Neymar - Suárez - Messi

Valencia (4-3-3) – Alves - Abdenour - Mustafi - Siqueira - Barragan - Fuego - Dani Parejo - Gomes - Rodrigo - Santi Mina - Paco Alcácer

Injury List / Suspended Players

Barcelona - Vermaelen (inj) - Sandro (inj) - Mathieu (inj) - Turan (sus)

Valencia - Piatti (inj) - Bakkali (inj) - Feghouli (out)

Head-to-head matches:

League Positions