Barcelona vs Valencia Preview

Barcelona will look to return to winning ways when they host Valencia this Monday.

The hosts’ chances of winning back-to-back league titles was crushed last week when they were beaten 3-2 by their fierce rivals Real Madrid in the El Clasico. That result means that the Blaugrana trail the league leaders by 11 points with six games of the season remaining.

However, it wasn’t all gloom for the Catalan side this past week as manager Xavi Hernández announced a U-turn on his earlier announcement that he will be departing at the end of the season and decided to see out his contract at the club. Xavi’s primary focus between now and the end of the campaign will be securing a second-placed finish for Barça with next week’s clash with Girona looming large in that respect. They can’t look too far ahead but Barcelona are bound to be confident ahead of the visit of Valencia, a side they’re unbeaten against on their turf since April 2016 in league H2Hs (W5, D2).

Like their hosts, Valencia will be desperate to bounce back here after suffering a demoralizing 2-1 defeat to Real Betis in their last outing. That defeat dented their European qualification aspirations as they now sit a point adrift of the top-seven.

Los Ches will be hoping for a good performance here to avoid losing back-to-back league games for the first time since October. But without a H2H win in the league since January 2020, Valencia’s chances of avoiding such a fate certainly look bleak.

However, the visitors have at least won back-to-back away league matches ‘to nil’ and could secure a third consecutive victory for the first time since November 2017 – last doing so with three shutouts way back in November 2009.

Other fixtures taking place this week in the Spanish Primera Liga:

Spanish Primera Liga Table