The tenth-placed side only have the pride to play for and that clearly hasn’t been enough of a motivator in recent weeks as Jose Bordalas’ men come into this clash without a league win in six.
Valencia
While Valencia may still have three games remaining of this La Liga season, it would seem that the end of the campaign can’t come quick enough. The tenth-placed side only have the pride to play for and that clearly hasn’t been enough of a motivator in recent weeks as Jose Bordalas’ men come into this clash without a league win in six. However, avenging last month’s Copa del Rey final defeat to Real Betis may give them an extra push here. That defeat in the final made it four competitive winless H2Hs for Valencia, and considering Betis are still fighting to solidify a top-five finish, ending that winless run won’t be easy.
That looks especially so as Valencia have struggled when taking on the league’s best this season, highlighted by the fact that they are without a win in their 11 previous matches against teams currently sitting inside the top six – although three of those four draws did at least come at home!
Real Betis
Betis’ Copa Del Rey success this season has eased some of the pressure around their poor recent league run after Saturday’s home loss vs Barcelona (2-1) made it no league win in four. Scoring goals has been their most obvious problem and their total of one across the last four game weeks is the fewest for any La Liga side across that period. Now another poor showing upfront here could open the door for sixth-placed Real Sociedad to leapfrog them into fifth when they take on Cadiz later in the week, so the result of this game could have huge ramifications for Betis’ season.
A lot of Betis’ success early in the campaign was built on their away form, and still only the league’s top two sides have collected more points on the road (29) than them. Yet just one win across their last five league trips will add to manager Manuel Pellegrini’s concerns.
Valencia’s Carlos Soler has scored two penalties after the 60th minute across his previous four home La Liga matches, and is up against Borja Iglesias who scored in last month’s final. Each of Iglesias’ last three competitive goals have come away from home for Betis. No La Liga side has picked up more yellow cards (118) or red (8) than Valencia.