Valencia vs Barcelona Betting Tips

The appointment of the former Manchester United defender turned TV pundit has stunned the football world and has been greeted with cautious optimism by most at the Mestalla. It certainly represents a gamble but the way things had been going under Nuno, a fresh approach will certainly be welcomed by the players, whose relationship with the Portuguese boss had all but disintegrated long before a pitiful display at Sevilla last weekend when Valencia failed to have a single shot or even win a corner.

All of that may have little bearing on this game though. Even though Neville was appointed early on Wednesday, he won’t take charge of this match. Owner Peter Lim is clearly protecting his new coach from a Barcelona side that is playing stunning football and as they showed in El Clasico, are capable of wiping the floor with even the best teams.

His reluctance to have Neville take charge of this game, to some extent feels like an admission of defeat and at best sends out the wrong message to the players. Valencia do have a huge game next week against Lyon in the Champions League that will be Neville’s first in the dug-out but even though Valencia have a very strong home record, it is hard to see them going into that game on the back of anything other than a defeat.

Even by their own high standards, Barca have been brilliant of late. They have won all of their last 6 matches by at least 3 clear goals and when you consider their opponents have included Real Madrid, Roma and high-flying Villarreal, they seem to be in a league of their own right now.

Here they take on a Valencia side that could be without as many as 8 members of their first-team squad. João Cancelo and Javi Fuego are suspended while the likes of Alvaro Negredo, Diego Alves and Shkodran Mustafi are all suffering from injury problems. Therefore another relatively comfortable Barcelona win should be on the cards and you can back them to win by 2 goals or more at 4/5.

A passionate sell-out Mestalla crowd is likely to be their biggest obstacle and the players that do start should at least fight for the cause with a new manager to impress so it’s unlikely to be a complete rout but a solid 3-1 win for the Catalans looks a possible outcome and can be backed at 9/1.