La Liga: Barcelona vs Valencia Betting Preview

Barcelona will seek to make it 9 wins in a row in La Liga and take another step towards the title as they host the up and down Valencia side who haven’t had a great season so far but have seemed to turned the corner.

To begin with the league leaders Barcelona. Well they’ve won 8 straight in La Liga and are coming off a 6-1 win against Sevilla overcoming 0-2 deficit to start the 2nd leg so what could go well had gone well for them so far recently.

Barcelona have been particularly dominant at Nou Camp in the league with 8W 2D 1L and they’ve scored 36 goals which is 17 more than the 2nd highest scoring team in La Liga at Home which are crazy numbers.

Barcelona have also improved defensively in recent weeks managing to keep clean sheets more often unlike at the start of the season where they struggled to keep Clean sheets badly.

As usual, Lionel Messi is having yet another crazy good season in La Liga and most recently especially he’s played out of his mind scoring in 8 consecutive games totalling 10 goals. Messi has either scored or assisted in every game he started since October which says it all really.

Luis Suarez has also performed at an exceptionally high level this season for Barcelona with 15 goals in the league. Him and Messi have scored 34 combined in La Liga and they will be the key focus for Valencia to defend.

Valencia are currently 7th in La Liga, still within a shot of making a push for a top 4 spot as they’re 7 points behind 4th placed Sevilla.

Valencia have shown decent form lately, won 4 of their last 5, 2 straight in La Liga beating Villarreal 3-0 last week and they scored 2 90 minute goals in Copa Del Rey against Getafe to clinch a Semi Final spot most recently so to say that their morale is high after those few games is definitely true.

Valencia have however won most of these games at Home. Away from Home they really struggled lately losing 5 of last 7 away games in all competitions only winning once and drawing once.

Striker Rodrigo is currently the man in form for Valencia and will be expected to deliver for them if they want to get a result. Rodrigo has 5 goals in his last 4 apps including a hattrick during the midweek fixture against Getafe in Copa Del Rey.

Overall, Valencia have relied on their defending this season to get results, they’ve conceded 2nd tied least amount of goals (18) with Getafe, Atletico only conceding less. Going forward it’s been a bit of a struggle for Valencia with only 22 goals but with Rodrigo’s recent form they may be able to start to bag a few more goals now like they’ve done the past couple of games.

The first meeting between these sides ended in a 1-1 draw at Mestalla as Valencia grabbed an early goal but Barca responded thanks to Messi. It was an evenly matched game and was a fair result in the end.

Barcelona have dominated Valencia at Nou Camp in recent decade winning 12 of 14 games against them at Home. Valencia did win the other two of those games in 2014 and 2016. Not a fixture that provides draws at Nou Camp.

Barcelona are tipped as big favourites at 1.34 to win. A draw is tipped at 6.00 and Valencia to win is 8.00 according to bookies at Unibet.

Team News

Barcelona: Umtiti, Dembele and Rafinha all remain injured while Sergio Busquets is suspended which could leave a massive void in the midfield given his consistency. Expect Valverde to field a strongest possible team otherwise.

Valencia: Kondogbia and Guedes are both out with injuries for Valencia meanwhile Diakhaby is suspended.

Betting Stats

Barcelona are 5th best at covering total goal overs at home at 45.5% (5-1-5).

Barcelona are 3rd best at covering 1st half total goal overs at home at 54.55 (6-5).

Messi (11) and Suarez (9) have a combined 20 total goals at Nou Camp for Barcelona in La Liga this season.

Barcelona average 2.09 bookings per game at Nou Camp (23 bookings in 11 games).

Barcelona are 6th best at covering Handicaps at home this season at 54.5% (6-5).

Valencia are just 17th best (4th worst) at covering total goal overs away from home at 30% (3-7).

Valencia are 18th best (3rd worst) at covering 1st half total goal overs away from home at just 20% (2-3-5).

Daniel Parejo has the most away goals for Valencia in the league with 3.

Valencia average 2.9 bookings per game away from home this season (29 bookings in 10 games).

Valencia are 7th best at covering Handicaps away from home at 50% (5-1-4).

KICK OFF – 2nd February 2019 – 5:30pm UK Time