Valencia vs Atletico Madrid Prediction and Preview – 06/03/16
La Liga preview – Valencia vs Atletico Madrid prediction.
Gary Neville could name an unchanged side when Valencia welcome Atletico Madrid to Mestalla on Sunday. Denis Cheryshev scored his second goal in five starts since joining on loan from Real Madrid when hitting the winner at Malaga on Wednesday. Alvaro Negrado was relegated to the bench after starting the previous two games and Paco Alcacer is expected to be favoured again on Sunday. Joao Cancelo is available after being suspended for the last game but it is unlikely that Zakaria Bakkali and Aymen Abdennour will be fit in time.
Lucas Hernandez is set to start in central defence for Atletico after Diego Godin was forced out of the 3-0 win against Sociedad with a thigh injury. Stefan Savic and Tiago are getting closer to making their comebacks and Yannick Ferreira Carrasco has returned to training after spraining his ankle but all three will miss out this weekend. Anders Griezmann’s penalty conversion on Tuesday took his goal tally to 14 and the French international is expected to partner Luciano Vietto with Fernando Torres starting on the bench.
Possible Line-ups
Valencia 4-3-3 formation: Alves; Barragan, Mustafi, Santos, Gaya; Parejo, Fuego, Gomes; Feghouli, Alcacer, Cheryshev
Atletico Madrid 4-4-2 formation: Oblak; Juanfran, Gimenez, Hernandez, Luis; koke, Gabi, Fernandez, Saul; Griezmann, Vietto
Statistics
- Valencia have won 5 drawn 1 and lost 4 of their last 10 matches
- Atletico Madrid have won 4 drawn 4 and lost 2 of their last 10 matches
- Over the course of their previous 10 matches, Valencia have scored an average of 1.7 goals and conceded an average of 1.6 goals per game
- Over the course of their previous 10 matches, Atletico Madrid have scored an average of 1.1 goals and conceded an average of 0.6 goals per game
- There have been over 2.5 goals scored in 7 of Valencia’s previous 10 matches
- There have been over 2.5 goals scored in 4 of Atletico Madrid’s previous 10 matches
Prediction
The feel-good factor is returning to Valencia after Gary Neville’s side won five of the last six competitive games. Morale was boosted by a 10-0 aggregate win against Rapid Vienna in the Europa League last month and Valencia reacted well to the 3-0 home defeat against Bilbao last Sunday by taking all three points from Malaga with a 2-1 win at La Rosaleda on Wednesday.
Atletico went four points clear in second place when defeating Real Madrid 1-0 in the Bernabeu on Saturday and followed up by winning 3-0 at home to Real Sociedad in midweek. Diego Simeone’s side have won four and drawn one of the previous five games in La Liga and last tasted defeat when losing 2-1 when reduced to 9 men at Barcelona in January.
Confidence is high at Valencia but it may be too much for Neville’s team to maintain their discipline against a very strong Atletico side.
Tips
Atletico to win at 53/50 with Marathonbet
Under 2.5 goals at 3/5 at Marathonbet
Atletico to win 1-0 at 11/2 with BetVictor
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