Valencia CF travels to the Camp Nou with another side after beating Real Sociedad and sealing a losing streak of more than a hundred days without winning. Rubén Baraja’s men go to the house of a leader decimated by casualties and who looks askance at the Copa del Rey, but who has shown an astonishing solvency in league competition despite his latest setback. The results of other teams mean that the black and white have it in their hands to leave the relegation zone at the end of the day, but to achieve this they must win in the most complicated scenario in the category by playing a game that does not admit tactical mistakes and that will require a certain point of irreverence to hurt FC Barcelona.
The defensive reliability shown against Real is threatened by the problems that the Valencian defense is dragging. The main dent in the black and white rearguard is that of the left side. Both José Luis Gayà and Lato, who finished training with discomfort, will be out against Barça. Lato ended the game with discomfort and Jesús Vázquez entered to play the final minutes, who will start at the Camp Nou.
In that same match against the txuri urdin, Gabriel Paulista suffered a hamstring injury and had to be substituted at half-time to bring on Cömert.
During the last training session before traveling to Barcelona, Diakhaby and Cenk Ozcakar gave a scare. Before the end of yesterday’s preparatory session, the Turkish central defender withdrew with discomfort before finishing, to later see how the Guinean international could not continue either. However, both got on the bus heading to the Camp Nou along with the rest of their teammates, with the exception of the already known casualties.
On the expedition to Barcelona, ’Pipo’ had to pull from the Mestalla to fill the bus. Given the doubts of Diakhaby and Ozkacar, they entered the list to cover their feet Mosquera and Iranzo in the rear. In addition, the usual Fran Pérez will accompany him from the subsidiary, Javi Guerra for the midfield, and Mario Domínguez, who, given the casualties of Cavani and Marcos André, will accompany Hugo Duro as an option for the Valencian vanguard. Diakhaby is expected to start with Comert as the center back pair.
The Mestalla team comes from winning at home with a very disciplined game both tactically and physically, changing the usual ‘modus operandi’ this season: a few meters back, giving up possession of the ball, working hard on withdrawing and tilting and from there try to do damage to the counterattack. Barça will promote a script very similar to that of Real Sociedad, although with the difference of playing at home and having more talent despite the losses of Robert Lewandowski and Ousmanne Dembélé, which will force the team to redouble their efforts and not give away or a minute of deconcentration.
Barça’s situation, yes, is more propitious than ever to score. The losses of Pedri and Gavi greatly condition their approach in the midfield and hinder the ability of Xavi Hernández to rest players after some demanding Cup semifinals, so Valencia has the opportunity to exploit that difference in physical tone.
