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Valencia v Barcelona
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Kick Off: Saturday 17th August at 20:30
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Competition: La Liga
Following the departure of Xavi, Hansi Flick will step in to manage Barcelona for the upcoming season. The German is best known for winning the sextuple with Bayern Munich in 2020, boasting an 81% win-rate during his 86 games in charge. Dani Olmo will also arrive from Germany, having helped Spain win Euro 2024 with three goals.
Contrastingly, it’s been a quiet summer for Valencia, with minimal to report on transfers. Ruben Baraja will oversee his second full season in charge of Los Ches, which will mean another season of low-blocking pragmatism.
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Ahead of the Spanish clash on Saturday evening, we’ve collated a list of the best Valencia v Barcelona free bet offers, which could see you bag over £250 in free bets to wager on the match, or the rest of this weekend’s footballing action. Our Valencia v Barcelona bet builder tips may also be of interest to you.
Valencia v Barcelona Best Bets
The play styles of both teams marry up nicely here. Barcelona will look to dominate possession, while Valencia are content with sitting deep and playing on the counter. With Barcelona not yet able to field their strongest defensive contingent, Valencia will be hoping to capitalise.
Given how it landed in both head-to-head fixtures last season, and considering both sides have netted in three out of four pre-season games for Barcelona, Both Teams to Score at 1.75 looks a standout price.
Valencia were awarded nine penalties last season in all competitions, converting eight of those into goals. Pepelu is the dedicated penalty taker for Los Ches, and scored all eight, including against Barcelona. The vast majority of those were at home too, as Valencia managed eight penalties in 20 home games, taking the most spot-kicks in La Liga. With that in mind, 7.5 for Pepelu to score anytime looks especially bulky.
📂 Valencia v Barcelona Cheat Sheet
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📊 Valencia Form and Stats
Valencia had a massively disappointing end to the season, as a winless run of seven games to end the campaign saw them slip out of contention for the European spots. Following that, pre-season has also yielded mostly negative results – one win, two draws and three losses.
Last season, Los Ches conceded 31 goals on the road, compared to just 14 goals at home. Whilst that bodes well for this fixture, they will have to tighten up.
Rafa Mir has been brought in, and will likely assume a starting role alongside Hugo Duro following the departure of Roman Yaremchuk. Both managed to get on the scoresheet in the final pre-season friendly against Frankfurt in a 3-2 win. Valencia managed just 40 goals in the league last season, with Hugo Duro accounting for 13 of those. He featured in all but one game, and was pivotal for Valencia.
📊 Barcelona Form and Stats
Hansi Flick only completed one full season in charge of Bayern before moving to manage the German national team, but he promises to bring expansive, intense football to Catalonia. A feature of Germany and Bayern under Hansi Flick, was their ability to maintain the vast majority of possession, while also playing direct football. Next season, Barcelona will look to press strongly with a high defensive line.
Because of that, it comes as no surprise that pre-season fixtures have been goal-laden. Barcelona have played four pre-season games, facing Man City, Real Madrid, AC Milan and Monaco. Both teams scored in three of those games, with over 2.5 match goals landing in all four.
Frenkie de Jong and Gavi remain sidelined with injuries, while Pedri is also doubtful after picking up a knock at Euro 2024. Ronald Araujo will be another miss following a hamstring injury.
⚔️ Valencia v Barcelona Head-to-Head
Valencia keeper Giorgi Mamardashvili announced himself at Euro 2024, with stellar performances in between the sticks. He conceded just eight goals from 12.1 xGA, making him statistically the best-performing goalkeeper in terms of xG prevented.
However, he had a game to forget last time he faced Barcelona, after he handled the ball outside the box to atone for an earlier error. He was sent off just before half-time, after goals from Hugo Duro and Pepelu had Valencia leading 2-1. A second-half hat-trick from Robert Lewandowski ticked the scoreline to 4-2, securing the three points for Barcelona.
The reverse fixture finished 1-1 after Joao Felix had his opener cancelled out by Hugo Guillamon. Valencia persisted with their low-block, mustering up just 36% of the ball in front of a home support. They could consider themselves extremely fortunate to have taken a point, given that Barcelona accrued 3.24 xG.
* We recommend waiting for confirmed team line-ups before placing any bets.
* All odds displayed correct at the time of publishing.
Written by an Andy verified content writer
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