Rooted in mid-table and without a La Liga win in eight matches, anything less than a victory against tenth-placed Celta Vigo here will see Valencia finish inside the bottom half in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2017.
Valencia
Valencia fans will most likely be pleased to see the end of this campaign which in truth feels like it ended for their side some time ago. Rooted in mid-table and without a La Liga win in eight matches, anything less than a victory against tenth-placed Celta Vigo here will see Valencia finish inside the bottom half in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2017. Motivation has been an obvious recent problem for the ‘Bats’, although manager Jose Bordalas has assured supporters that the final game of the campaign will be a good one because he believes the Valencia faithful “deserve it”. There’s every chance those words will ring true if the game follows the same trend of recent season-ending home fixtures, with Valencia winning each of their last four by a combined aggregate scoreline of 10-3!
Celta Vigo
Opponents Celta are finishing the season much stronger than Valencia, losing just one of their last four La Liga outings. They’re now on course to finish inside the top ten for a second straight season for the first time since 2016, though one win across their last nine away matches suggests a positive result is no guarantee. That’s a point only enhanced by the fact that each of the last two H2H meetings ended in defeat for Celta. Both saw ‘Los Celestes’ concede exactly two goals, with three of those four strikes arriving after half-time, and that’s also been when Celta have conceded 67 per cent of their league goals on the road this season.
Currently on four, Maximiliano Gomez looks set to net his fewest number of La Liga goals since arriving in Spain, though he did score in the last H2H against his former side and in Valencia’s last league match. After scoring Celta’s last three H2H goals, Iago Aspas could finish the season with a bang after scoring his side’s first goal in three of their previous six games. Celta are the only La Liga side with a 100 per cent losing away record when conceding first this season.