Valencia vs Atletico Madrid

Estadio de Mestalla sets the stage for a ‘make or break’ La Liga showdown between Valencia and Atletico Madrid.

Valencia’s humiliating La Liga season is on the brink of disaster as they languish in the bottom three pre-round, risking their first relegation to the second tie since 1985/86. However, new manager Carlos Corberan has turned Valencia’s fortunes around since replacing club icon Ruben Baraja in the dugout, avoiding defeat in five of his seven league games in charge (W3, D2). Furthermore, he has inspired ‘Los Ches’ to three consecutive home league victories and could make it four in a row for the first time since August 2021. Two of those three wins came ‘to nil,’ which bodes well, considering Valencia won this corresponding fixture last term 3-0 to end an underwhelming eight-game winless H2H streak at Mestalla (D4, L4).

In the meantime, Atletico Madrid’s bid to win the Premier League title for the first time since 2020/21 took a hit last weekend as they drew 1-1 at home against Celta Vigo, falling a point behind leaders Barcelona. Back-to-back league stalemates have deepened the crisis in Madrid, leaving Diego Simeone’s side at one win in five La Liga matches (D3, L1). Despite a humiliating loss at Mestalla last term, Simeone has never lost consecutive away league games against Valencia and must uphold that record to stay in the title picture. Conceding first should faze Atletico much, given that they’ve won 17 points from winning positions this season – more than any other side in Europe’s top-five leagues!