Sunday 12th February sees 3rd place Valencia host second from bottom of La Liga Sporting Gijion. Valencia have a good home record winning 6, drawing 2 and losing 2. Sporting Gijion’s away record has been awful this season winning just 2, drawing 1 and losing 7.

Valenica’s recent form has not been good drawing the last 3 games and without a win in 5 but 4 of these 5 games have been away. Sporting Gijion’s recent form has been bad also with 4 losses and just 1 win in their last 6.

Sporting Gijion away games have produced a lot of goals this season with 9 out of their 10 away games ending in over 2.5 goals. In these 10 games they have conceded 26 and scored 10. Valencia’s home games have resulted in over 2.5 goals 5 times out if their 10 home games but Valencia have only failed to score in 1 of those 10 home games.

Taking all this information into account I expected Valencia to win in a high scoring game.


Team News:

Valencia:

Valencia striker Roberto Soldado has recovered from the flu that sidelined him from Wednesday's Copa del Rey semi-final defeat at the hands of Barcelona and could start against Sporting Gijon.

The star forward's return means that Los Che coach Unai Emery has almost a full squad to choose from, with only long-term absentees Hedwiges Maduro and Sergio Canales still out.

The Basque will have to re-jig his defence, however, with Victor Ruiz serving a one-match suspension for accumulating five yellow cards.

Possible Lineups:

Alves
Miguel, Rami, Dealbert, Mathieu
Albelda, Banega
Feghouli, Jonas, Alba
Soldado

Sporting Gijion:

Sporting Gijon coach Inaki Tejada, who is taking charge of only his second game at the club after replacing Manuel Preciado at the helm, is hoping that several of his flu-hit players will be able to leave their sickbeds to make the trip to Valencia.

Adrian Colunga and Alberto Botia are both struggling, while Nacho Cases and Ivan Hernandez are definitely out.

Possible Lineups:

Juan Pablo
Lora, Botia, Gregory, Canella
Rivera, Eguren
De las Cuevas, Castro, Carmelo
Barral

Last 6 games (league):

Valencia: DDDLWL

Sporting Gijion: DLDDWL

Prediction: Valencia 3 – 1 Sporting Gijion

My Pick: Valencia to win at 1.4 (2/5)
Valencia to win by 2 or more at 2.1 (11/10)
Over 2.5 goals at 1.83 (5/6)

Outside Bet: Valencia 3 –1 at 13.8 (64/5)

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