Elche vs Valencia predictions and match preview for Friday’s LaLiga match. Read on for the head-to-head, team news and predicted lineups as two sides from the Valencian Community meet.
- DATE: Friday 23rd October 2020
- KICK-OFF: 21:00 (local time)
- VENUE: Estadio Manuel Martinez Valero
- COMPETITION: LaLiga
Elche vs Valencia Preview
It’s matchday 7 and finally LaLiga have won their battle to stage Friday night games. Elche and Valencia face off in what is something of a local derby with both sides based in the Valencian region of Spain. The newly promoted team have defied all expectations so far with some encouraging results and they’ll fancy they can keep their strong start going here against a troubled Valencia side.
Since losing their first match 3-0 at home to Real Sociedad, Elche have managed to rediscover the defensive foundations which fired them to promotion in the first place. They’ve kept three straight clean sheets since then and moved onto 7 points with a 2-0 win away to Alaves last time out.
They have perhaps been a bit fortunate to claim that many in truth having managed just 5 shots on targets in those last 3 games. They had just 2 attempts in their most recent home game to Huesca’s 18 but still managed to get a result and despite a struggle to create many openings, they are clearly doing something right having gone into this season as almost everybody’s favourites for relegation.
There was some talk that Valencia might even be at risk of getting sucked into the relegation picture this season. Clearly there are some fairly significant problems at this football club but Javi Gracia is doing his best to at least make them competitive on the pitch whilst bleeding some young talent that could be a big part of this club’s plans in the upcoming years.
Sunday saw them fall to a 2-1 defeat in another local derby in this part of the world away against Villarreal. The fact that Paco Alcacer and Dani Parejo, two former Valencia players, were the goalscorers for the hosts will have added salt into the wounds of followers of Los Che who have endured a deeply frustrating summer.
Head to Head
- Last 4 Competitive Meetings: 3 Valencia Wins, 1 Elche Win.
- Valencia won 4-0 the last time the sides met – on this ground in LaLiga 2014/15.
- Los Che have won each of the last 3 meetings.
- Elche’s only 21st Century win over Valencia came at home in 2013 by a 2-1 margin.
Team News
Forward Lucas Boye remains a doubt for Elche so Pere Milla should continue up top. Full-back Josema is also sidelined.
Geoffrey Kondogbia and Maxi Gomez are two major injury absentees for Valencia.
Predicted Elche Starting Lineup:
Badia – Sanchez Mino, Calvo, Verdu, Barragan – Marcone, Guti, Josan – Rigoni, Milla, Morente (4-3-3)
Predicted Valencia Starting Lineup:
Jaume – Gaya, Diakhaby, Gabriel, Correia – Guedes, Wass, Soler, Musah – Kang-In, Vallejo (4-4-2)
Elche vs Valencia Predictions
Score Prediction: Elche 1-1 Valencia
Elche have been a bit fortunate so far to collect as many points as they have done and they haven’t played well in either home game. Therefore a home victory here still looks doubtful despite all of Valencia’s problems and we might see this one end up all square.
LaLiga Betting Tips (18+)
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