The race for a top-four finish continues in LaLiga with a crucial battle on Friday evening, when fourth-placed Atletico Madrid visit seventh-placed Valencia at Estadio de Mestalla. The reverse fixture was played in October and it ended 1-1, Diego Costa opened the scoring for Atletico in the first half and Daniel Parejo netted the equalizer in the 82nd minute. Atletico Madrid are undefeated in the last ten matches against Valencia, and have won six of the ten games. The last time Valencia defeated Atletico was in 2014.
Valencia have a real chance of pushing for a top-four finish this season, they are just two points behind Atletico in the league table and third-placed Getafe are just five points away. However, they lost a direct battle last week as they got hammered 3-0 at Getafe, so they can't afford another setback in a direct match against a fellow top-four contender. They are still undefeated at home in LaLiga this season, they have won seven and drawn five in front of their home fans. Alessandro Florenzi got sent off in last week's match and is suspended now, while Cristiano Piccini, Manu Vallejo and Ezequiel Garay are out injured.
Atletico Madrid are having a disappointing season, they can't hope to push for the title any more, but finishing outside the top four would be a real disaster for head coach Diego Simeone and his team. Last week Atletico managed to interrupt a streak of five matches without a win in all competitions with a narrow 1-0 victory over Granada in LaLiga. They have scored just one goal in their last four league matches, an incredible dry spell for a team that has extremely talented players in attack. Striker Diego Costa has returned to training but will probably be kept on the bench as he is lacking match fitness, while Joao Felix and Kieran Trippier are out injured.
Probable line-ups:
Valencia: Domenech - Wass, Diakhaby, Paulista, J. Costa - Torres, Parejo, Kondogbia, Soler - Gameiro, Gomez
Atletico: Oblak - Arias, Felipe, Savic, Lodi - Koke, Llorente, Partey, Niguez - Vitolo, Correa
My prediction:
Atletico Madrid have been quite weak lately and Valencia are solid at home, so I think we might see a 2-1 victory for the home side.
Here are the odds for the match at NetBet:
Valencia win - 2.90
Draw - 3.00
Atletico win - 2.70
