After falling to the hands of defeat by Espanyol in their mid-week fixture Valencia now find themselves sitting in eighth and will welcome relegation threatened Granada to the Mestalla in hopes of getting their campaign back on track.
Form
Coming off of three successive defeats to Villarreal, Real Madrid, and Real Sociedad in which they only scored once in those 270 minutes, their task will be no easier traveling to Valencia in search of their first win since the 30th of August. Fran Rico provided the only goal in a 1-3 defeat at home to The Yellow Submarines in the 74th minute only to concede once more at the death.
Against Real Madrid, they performed better – at least on the defensive side that is. Allowing only one goal to Madrid is no small feat, considering that Rafa Benitez’ side has scored five or more goals in multiple matches this season. Sandoval’s men will have to be better going forward if they hope to beat a Valencia side that need a victory as badly as they do.
Nuno needs a victory and quick as Los Che faithful are beginning to turn on him with each poor result after finishing in fourth a season ago. Having dropped points in their previous three matches in all competitions, a win against this lowly club who always seem to stay up, will be absolutely vital for not only their confidence and hopes for getting another spot in a European league.
Last time out against Espanyol, a first half goal from Victor Alvarez was enough for the home side as they cruised to the victory. Possession was exactly 50/50 but it was the home team who had the better of the chances, creating more opportunities that eventually lead to their big win at the Power8 Stadium. This result shows that Valencia are lacking something going forward. Whether or not Alvaro Negredo is the heart of the problem is unknown but Paco Alcacer needs to be given a start.
Key Players
For Valencia, we are focusing on the strikers Paco Alcacer and Alvaro Negredo. These two play a different style of game, the first: uses his speed and technical ability to create space and the other is a physical forward that likes to assert his strength when battling with a central defender.
But in a combined seven appearances for their club, they have two goals to their name. Obviously, this is not good enough for a side that has aspirations of getting another Champions League spot come the end of the season. Some better distribution from the playmakers around them and they will bang in the goals again.
At 23-years-old Thievy Bifouma seems to have finally settled into a permanent club with Granada. The only thing missing right now though, are the goals. Although he has only played a total of 81 minutes in these three matches, Bifouma has yet to score. They will come though and once they do, the goals will come in bunches at a time.
Prediction
This is going to be a very cagey affair with both sides needing a win for different reasons. The home side of course has the better footballers at every position and should win easily.