Barcelona’s 3-2 defeat in last weekend’s Clasico has all but dashed their hopes of retaining the La Liga crown. The Blaugrana find themselves 11 points adrift of Real Madrid with six games left in the season. The only silver lining in a week that saw Barcelona also crash out of the Champions League was coach Xavi Hernandez’s decision to stay at the club beyond the season’s end.
His main aim now is securing Barcelona’s second-place finish, starting with next week’s match against Girona. Barcelona can’t look too far ahead, but they’re surely optimistic ahead of Valencia’s visit, a team they haven’t lost to at home since April 2016 (5 wins, 2 draws).
Valencia enters the weekend trailing the top seven by one point, with European qualification still a possibility. However, a 2-1 loss to Real Betis has dented those aspirations, leaving Los Ches facing the prospect of consecutive league defeats for the first time since October.
Without a league win in this fixture since January 2020, their chances of avoiding such a fate seem slim. Nonetheless, Valencia has won two consecutive away league matches without conceding a goal and could make it three for the first time since November 2017 – the last time they achieved three clean sheets in a row was back in November 2009.
Key Battle: Marc-Andre ter Stegen has kept just two clean sheets in 14 league matches against Valencia, but they came in their last two encounters. Hugo Duro might aim to break the deadlock against the Barcelona goalkeeper, as his last six league goals have been Valencia’s opening goals.
Hot Stat: At least one team has failed to score in seven of Valencia’s last eight away league games.
Prediction: Predicting the score is always a bit tricky, but based on recent form and historical matchups, I’d say Barcelona has a slight advantage playing at home. Considering Valencia’s solid defensive record away from home recently, I think it will be a close match. I’d predict a 2-1 victory for Barcelona.
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