Football – Spain – La Liga
Sunday 14th September 2014 – Kickoff: 1700hrs
The recent big news surrounding Valencia was that Manchester City striker Negredo has joined the Spanish outfit following his transfer from the current Premier league title holders. He’ll no doubt be keen to show his new club and fans what he can do as Valencia chase back-to-back home wins to start their La Liga season off in style.
Valencia drew their opening match of the new season with Sevilla 1-1 away, but they turned up the heat on Malaga in their following match, winning by a 3-0 margin to send them up into an early second place just two points behind Barcelona who sit top.
Goals from Alcacer, Parejo and Piatti sealed all three points for the hosts in that match, and despite Negrodo’s recent arrival, manager Nuno Santo may stick with the same starting eleven to begin with against visitors Espanyol on Sunday.
Espanyol started their new La Liga season off with a reasonable point away at Almeria in a 1-1 draw but then returned back to their home ground the following weekend and suffered a 1-2 loss to Sevilla in their opening home match of the season.
Having now gone ten La Liga matches without a win and a trip away to a strengthened Valencia outfit, Sunday afternoon could be a very long ninety minutes for the visitors who have lost four of their last five away matches in the division.
Espanyol finished in the bottom half of La Liga last season and ended up with a rather ordinary away record of 4-4-11 18/29 keeping just two clean sheets from their last eighteen away matches.
With Negrodo’s presence in the Valencia line-up (even if he does start on the bench), will be a massive boost for the hosts ahead of today’s match. I’ll back Valencia to not only win this afternoon but also cover the -1 asian handicap which is offered at very good odds. A 2-0 or 3-1 win for the hosts.
Pick: Valencia AH-1 @ 2.17 Pinnacle
