Barcelona vs Valencia Betting Tips & Predictions

Plenty has changed since Valencia last visited the Camp Nou in February. They were hammered 7-0 on that occasion with Luis Enrique’s side running riot and looking like they were on course for another trophy clean sweep this season.

However this game has the potential to be a good deal more competitive. For starters Barcelona have lost 3 of their last 4 matches, which is remarkable given they had gone 39 games without defeat prior to that. They have lost to Real Madrid in el clasico, Real Sociedad in La Liga and exited the Champions League in midweek at the Vicente Calderon. They haven’t kept a clean sheet in any of their last 6 matches so the potential for an away goal is clearly there in this game and Barca have been leaking goals at home all season.

Valencia have replaced Gary Neville with Pako Ayestarán since they were thrashed by Barcelona in the Copa del Rey and there were signs last week that they are improving as they successfully saw off Sevilla 2-1 at the Mestalla to ease their relegation worries. They can probably play with a bit more freedom here as a result whereas there are bound to be a few nerves in the Barca side with their advantage down to just 3 points at the top of La Liga and several players struggling for form.

The visitors do have a few attacking players who could cause problems for an out-of-sorts Barcelona side and are likely to match Barca’s 4-3-3 which should lead to quite an open game. Valencia have gone 22 games without a league clean sheet though which remains a big concern especially against such quality opposition so we should still see a home win although also backing both teams to score at 3/4 looks a solid plan here.