Valencia vs Real Madrid

Estadio de Mestalla forms the backdrop for a lopsided La Liga showdown between Valencia and Real Madrid.

Despite fighting back twice to salvage a 2-2 draw against Deportivo Alaves in their last La Liga game of 2024, Valencia ran out of patience with club icon Ruben Baraja. ‘Los Che’ sacked the underperforming manager after a five-game winless league streak (D2, L3), appointing Carlos Corberan as his successor. Corberan couldn’t have imagined a sterner test on his touchline debut than facing Real Madrid, a side Valencia have lost against 93 times in La Liga (W47, D38). Against this backdrop, they’ve avoided defeat in eight of their last ten home encounters against this opposition (W5, D3), including a controversial 2-2 draw in this corresponding fixture in 2023/24. Valencia’s decent home run against ‘Los Blancos’ bodes well for their quest to reduce a four-point deficit on 17th-placed Getafe and increase their chances of avoiding relegation for the first time since the mid-1980s.

In contrast to Valencia’s troublesome position in the standings, Real Madrid’s title-defending La Liga campaign is back on track. A three-game unbeaten league run (W2, D1), bookended by a 4-2 rout of Sevilla last time out, has propelled Carlo Ancelotti’s charges to second in the table, only one point adrift of leaders Atletico Madrid. Despite only losing once on their nine top-flight road trips this season (W4, D4), ‘Los Merengues’ can’t take anything for granted. In addition to their rough patch at Mestalla, they’ve blown hot and cold across their last three La Liga travels (W1, D1, L1), even though they scored precisely three goals twice in that sequence. Defensive woes have clipped Madrid’s wings away from home, and they’re unlikely to end at Mestalla, where they’ve not kept a clean sheet since January 2013.