Valencia vs Malaga Betting Tips

Neither manager will be particularly pleased with the starts that their teams have made to this season. Valencia have won just 2 of their opening 7 league games and have lost two of the last three, both away from home against Espanyol and Athletic Bilbao.

Back at the Mestalla though they usually enjoy life and although they’ve not been entirely convincing this season, a record of just 1 defeat in 22 home matches since the start of the last campaign makes this a formidable task for the Andalucians.

Malaga finally ended their goal drought last time out with a 3-1 home win over Real Sociedad thanks to a hat-trick from Charles. He is the only player to find the net though this season for Malaga, who hadn’t scored in 6 outings prior to that game.

Away from home against strong opposition they are likely to revert to the more cautious approach, which had seen them concede just 3 goals in their opening 6 matches, which included three 0-0 draws. They pushed Barcelona pretty close when they went to the Camp Nou only last month going down to a narrow 1-0 defeat and are likely to employ similar tactics here and hope to scrape a point.

Valencia boss Nuno Espirito Santo has had 2 weeks to reflect on a disappointing start to the campaign but home games against Malaga and on Tuesday Gent in the Champions League, provide his side with the ideal opportunity to get a winning run going.

They should have just enough to edge this game even if they aren’t quite at their fluent best yet and are worth backing at 7/5 to win this game to nil as they did 8 times at home in the league last season including a 3-0 success over Malaga.

It is unlikely to be quite that convincing here with the visitors looking pretty good defensively and Valencia having only scored 4 league goals this term, so consider backing this to end with a 2-0 home win at odds of 11/2.