Valencia are still three points better off than they were at the same stage last season, which brought the club’s second-worst finish of its current top-flight stay (1987/88-present).
Mallorca
Relegation-battling Mallorca came agonisingly close to taking a point from top-four contenders Betis last time out, only to lose out via a late penalty. In a sign of their willingness to win, the result was Mallorca’s 11th in succession to see a winner either way, with the last five of those games seeing at least one penalty scored for the home side on the day. Alongside the six-point gap between themselves and the relegation zone, Mallorca have been in decent home form too with just one loss across their last nine matches here, including three straight wins. They can also draw inspiration from their impressive six-game home form against Valencia which saw them win the last two encounters by multi-goal margins, something they’ll strive to do for the first time in La Liga this season in this match up.
Valencia
Aiming to avoid successive bottom-half La Liga finishes for just the fifth time in 50 years. Valencia most recently went down 4-1 against Barcelona to stay stuck below halfway. Yet, they are still three points better off than they were at the same stage last season, which brought the club’s second-worst finish of its current top-flight stay (1987/88-present). If the ‘Bats’ are to get a respectable finish, then tightening up when travelling is crucial. They’ve agonisingly conceded an average of three goals-per-game across their La Liga away matches played in 2022, with the last of those contributing to their league-worst goal difference inside the opening 15 minutes away from home.
Vedat Muriqi scored last weekend, meaning both of his goals this term have come in the 61st-75th minute of games ending 2-1! Speaking of “2-1”, that’s how Valencia’s last road trip ended, with Gonçalo Guedes equalising from the spot in that same time period. Six (50 per cent) of the last 12 halves played in La Liga H2Hs have seen one team beat a -1 handicap.