12/15/19 3 pm
Over 2.5 (-175), Under 2.5 (+137) Click Here for the Latest Odds
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Valencia is hosting Real Madrid at Mestalla in a derby match of round 17 of Spanish LaLiga.
Earlier this season Valencia was having a turbulent period when the president of the club fired the head coach for no reason, but the team stayed untouched and is still playing good soccer both in LaLiga and in the Champions League. In their group in the Champions League, Valencia has ended the group stage in first place with 11 points. In the LaLiga standings, Valencia is in 8th place with 26 points, 26 scored goals, and 23 conceded goals. Valencia is playing in good form right now and has lost only 1 of their last 9 games. In their last LaLiga match against Levante away from home, Valencia had 51% of ball possession, 6 shots on goal, 1 corner kick, and 85% of the correct passes. Valencia was losing 2-0 early in the game, but they didn’t give up and kept pressuring Levante, and in the end, Valencia has won this match 2-4. Valencia has scored 26 goals so far this season, but defensively Valencia is inconsistent, and they conceded 23 goals. Gomez and Parejo have both scored 6 goals, while Gameiro added 4 goals. Rodrigo Moreno added 6 assists. There is a lot of injured players in Valencia right now including Guedes, Gomez, Cillessen, and Sobrino who are all important players for this team, while Cheryshev and Kondogbia are questionable but will probably be in the lineup for this match. Coach Celades has taken over this team at the really dark time after firing of their former coach, and not everyone was convinced that he can do the job, but he is proving everyone wrong. Valencia is playing nice, compact soccer with a strong midfield and solid attack. The only thing Celades must fix is that inconsistency on the defensive end if Valencia wants to have a chance of advancing in the Champions League.
Real Madrid is playing great soccer right now and hasn’t lost any of their last 10 games despite all the injuries. In their midweek Champions League match, Real Madrid couldn’t move up or down in the standings so this game didn’t have meaning for Real Madrid, but keeping the good form is important and that is why coach Zidane decided to keep most of his star players in the lineup. Real Madrid has won this match 1-3. In LaLiga, Real Madrid is in second place with 34 points, the same amount as Barcelona at the top, but with worse goal differential. In their last LaLiga game versus Espanyol at home, Real was the better team with 60% of ball possession, 8 shots on goal, 5 corner kicks, and 83% of the correct passes. This was a rough match with 28 fouls in total, 7 yellow cards, and 1 red card for Real Madrid but despite that, Real was able to win this match 2-0. With 32 scored goals, Real Madrid is the second-best attacking team in LaLiga. Benzema has scored 11 goals and added 5 assists for Real Madrid so far, While Modric and Carvajal both have 4 assists. Good thing for Real Madrid is that the Champions League is over until Spring because the injury list is quite long. Asensio, Rodriguez, Vazquez, Hazard, and Marcelo are all injured, while Mendy is suspended due to a red card. Despite all of these injuries, Real Madrid is playing really good, fast soccer, and Benzema is turning into the leader of this team. Zidane has plenty of talent on the bench in young stars like Vinicius, Jovic, Diaz, and Valverde, but the question is if they can stay consistent until other players recover.
Valencia has had some success against Real Madrid and there is usually a lot of goals scored in this matchup. I know that Real is playing in good form, I’m giving the slight edge to Valencia because they are playing at home.
Goran’s Pick Valencia and over 2.5 +400
AUTHOR: Goran Kucar
Follow Goran Kucar on Twitter @GoranKucar