There is plenty of work to be done defensively before their eagerly anticipated Champions League semi-final clash with Liverpool later in the month, and with just one clean sheet from Villarreal’s last eight La Liga outings, they could benefit profusely by stringing together some domestic shut outs in the coming weeks.
Villarreal
Unai Emery’s Villarreal backed up their stunning UEFA Champions League elimination of Bayern Munich with a 2-1 La Liga victory at Getafe that kept them in with a remote chance of qualifying for 2022/23 continental action via a top-six finish. But sitting seventh, and with three clashes against top-six opposition still to come, they certainly cannot afford to repeat their costly 0-2 Derbi de la Comunitat loss to Valencia earlier in the season. There is plenty of work to be done defensively before their eagerly anticipated Champions League semi-final clash with Liverpool later in the month, and with just one clean sheet from Villarreal’s last eight La Liga outings, they could benefit profusely by stringing together some domestic shut outs in the coming weeks.
However, Villarreal have failed to keep Valencia scoreless in their last three meetings, so securing that feat here looks a tall order.
Valencia
Valencia’s European ambitions seem to have been thwarted after just one victory from their five most recent league fixtures, but ahead of their Copa del Rey final against Real Betis at the weekend manager Jose Bordalas has a difficult decision to make heading into this match: does he go with a full-strength squad to regain some winning momentum, or treat this fixture with lesser importance? Beyond having secured a first Copa del Rey final appearance since 2019, Bordalas’ men start the round in tenth and are in a good position to improve on their 13th place finish from last season (their worst in 35 years). Valencia will take a step closer to that goal if they extend their longest unbeaten away league run of the campaign to five matches here.
Villarreal’s Manu Trigueros ended a goalscoring drought of nearly three months in his last start, and is one of two players to have opened the scoring (excluding own goals) in two Villarreal La Liga home wins this season. Meanwhile, in addition to goals in his last two La Liga fixtures, Valencia’s Carlos Soler has scored in his last two H2Hs. Valencia are the only remaining La Liga team to have scored in every defeat this season.