Valencia hosts Real Madrid

It’s time for another great La Liga derby because Valencia hosts Real Madrid at the Estadio Mestalla on Sunday.
For Valencia this derby comes in a really sweet moment for the club. During the week Los Che managed to qualify for the Champions League 1/8-finals after beating Ajax on hostile ground at Amsterdam. The game at the Johan Cruijff Arena ened with a 1-0 win for the Spanish club. Rodrigo scored the only goal in the game after an assist from Ferran Torres in the first half. It was a very good performance by Albert Celades’ team.

In La Liga Valencia have a room for improvement. Los Che are currently 8th in the standings with 26 points, but just one point behind the 4th Real Sociedad. This means that Valencia could make a huge jump in the table if they win against Real Madrid on Sunday.

Real Madrid on the other hand aim for the top. Los Blancos are currently second with 34 points, but having the same amount of points as the leader Barcelona. Since the beginning of the campaign Los Blancos lost just once, which makes them the team with the less amount of losses so far.

Last week Zinedine Zidane’s boys hosted Espanyol at the Bernabeu and secured the three points with a comfortable 2-0 win. Raphael Varane opened the score for the hosts, while Karim Benzema doubled Madrid’s lead with his 11th goal for the season. Only Barcelona’s Lionel Messi is ahead of Benzema in the goalscoring chart of the Spanish league.

Zinedine Zidane has some problems before this visit to the Mestalla. His countryman Ferland Mendy is suspended, while Eden Hazard is still injured.

Valencia stabilized their performance after the departure of the head coach Marcelino, so for Real Madrid this is not going to be an easy test on Sunday. Los Blancos will have to be on one hundred percent in order to take the win.