Leicester City vs Valencia Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

Leicester City and Valencia continue their pre-season preparations in the hope of improving their respective form before competitive football kicks-off once again.

Leicester’s pre-season got underway at the same time as Valencia’s, but the English club’s situation is vastly different in comparison. After replacing Craig Shakespeare last season, Claude Puel will now take the reins on Leicester from the beginning in the hope of replicating a somewhat similar season to that of the Premier League winning campaign from a few years back. However, the sale of Riyad Mahrez to Manchester City is a huge step towards the end of an era at the club. His departure will leave a massive hole in the squad, and it’s tough to say if there’s any footballer out there who could potentially replace the Algerian. The Foxes have re-invested their Mahrez-money well by bringing in Ricardo Pereira from Porto and James Maddison from Norwich City. The latter has the tough job of replacing Mahrez, and being named Norwich’s player of the season at just 21 years of age is a promising sign of things to come.

After enjoying a successful World Cup campaign and making a name for himself, another player in the eyes of many- particularly Manchester United- is Harry Maguire. After playing every minute of the 2017-18 season, the England star has more potential than everyone initially thought.

However, England’s impressive World Cup run meant that both Maguire and Vardy missed out on Leicester’s pre-season. Much like Valencia’s run of games, the Foxes beat Notts County 4-1, only to then draw 0-0 with Akhisarspor and finally lose 2-1 to Udinese.

Following the end of their successful season and his first one in charge, both Valencia and Marcelino have an exciting season to look forward to. Last year brought some stability back to the club after a shaky start under Singapore businessman Peter Lim. With the appointment of Marcelino in May 2017, Valencia managed to reach the semi-final of the Copa del Rey and finished 4^th, securing automatic qualification for the Champions League for the first time since the 2015-16 season. Due to the changes in UEFA’s qualification process for the Champions League, Los Ché didn’t have to worry about playing in any preliminary matches. This allowed Marcelino’s players to have a long and thoroughly deserved break after the end of last season.

Despite only playing their first friendly 10 days ago, the Valencian side have managed to squeeze in another 2 matches since then. They started off well by beating Turkish champions Galatasaray 2-1, not long after they drew 0-0 with 2^nd division team Lausanne Sport from Switzerland and finally losing to PSV after a 41^st minute penalty gave the Dutch team the victory.

The 40m euro sale of João Cancelo to Juventus gave Valencia the funds they wanted to finally buy Geoffrey Kondogbia, who was outstanding for the club throughout last season. Cristiano Piccini was brought in to replace Cancelo, as well as centre-back Mouctar Diakhaby from Lyon.

Despite last season’s success, Marcelino will have to make sure his squad sees enough rotation throughout the year to ensure maximum fitness is kept. Balancing three competitions until at least December is always a difficult task, a task that could prove fatal for most clubs’ performances in other competitions.

Despite having the exact same outcome in all three of their pre-season matches, Leicester and Valencia would seem to be on par with one another. However, Valencia’s squad is arguably stronger, and with Leicester still without some key players it’s easy to see how Los Ché could win this match. This is a good reason to back Marcelino’s side to win the match.

Either side’s pre-season games haven’t seen that many goals, with Valencia never seeing over 3.5 goals and Leicester seeing over that number once out of three matches. Lack of firepower could be the reason for the lack of goals, with the likes of Jamie Vardy and Rodrigo Moreno still on holiday.

All things considered, I think a 2-1 win for Valencia is the safest bet to make. Neither side has seen many more goals than that, and half of the friendlies they’ve played have ended with the same scoreline.