Real Madrid vs Valencia Preview – Prediction, how to watch & potential line-ups

Football Today

·31 January 2023

Real Madrid vs Valencia Preview – Prediction, how to watch & potential line-ups

Reigning La Liga holders Real Madrid welcome out-of-form Valencia to the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu on Thursday evening.

Despite registering their first home clean sheet in La Liga this season, Madrid could only manage a drab 0-0 draw against Real Sociedad last weekend, falling further behind leaders Barcelona.

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With five points separating the sides ahead of this round and Xavi Hernandez’s men travelling to out-of-sorts Real Betis, Los Blancos face a must-win situation on Thursday.

Carlo Ancelotti’s men have blown hot and cold in their first three top-flight matches of 2023 (W1, D1, L1), but they’ve at least registered back-to-back shutouts for the first time this term.

That’s perhaps the only encouragement Madrid can get ahead of their upcoming trip to Morocco for the FIFA Club World Cup 2023.

They cannot afford to underestimate the significance of this fixture as Valencia head into this round fresh from sacking manager Gennaro Gattuso in the wake of an underwhelming 1-0 loss at Real Valladolid.

Considering Los Murcielagos have lost three of their four La Liga encounters since La Liga’s resumption in December (D1), it’s no wonder the Italian tactician had to leave his post prematurely.

It will be up to caretaker boss Voro to drive Valencia out of a crisis, but the 59-year-old could’ve hardly hoped for a more challenging task on his debut as an interim manager.

Match Preview

Real Madrid

Following an outrageous 11-match start to the 2022/23 La Liga season (W10, D1), Madrid have dropped points four times in their last seven league outings (W3, D2, L2).

Los Merengues need every encouragement they can get, and considering they’ve not lost any of their last 15 top-flight games played on Thursday (W13, D2), they can feel comfortable.

They have won their last three league meetings with Valencia, including an overwhelming 4-1 victory in this corresponding fixture in 2021/22.

Valencia

Valencia’s abysmal record of eight defeats from their first 18 La Liga matches this season (W5, D3) stands as their third-highest tally of losses at this stage of the competition in the 21st century.

Avoiding another fiasco at the Bernabeu looks unlikely because they’ve failed to win any of their last 14 visits to Madrid in La Liga (D5, L9) since a 3-2 triumph in 2008.

Valencia may wave goodbye to their hopes of staging an upset if they concede first, given that they’ve suffered three defeats in four away league matches when falling behind this term (D1).

Real Madrid vs Valencia Potential Line-ups

Real Madrid (4-3-3): Thibaut Courtois; Nacho Fernandez, Eder Militao, Antonio Rudiger, Eduardo Kamavinga; Toni Kroos, Federico Valverde, Luka Modric; Rodrygo, Karim Benzema, Vinicius Junior.

Valencia (4-3-3): Mamardashvili; Thierry Correia, Eray Comert, Mouctaar Diakhaby, Jose Gaya; Yunus Musah, Hugo Guillamon, Andre Almeida; Justin Kluivert, Edinson Cavani, Samuel Lino.