The Estadio de Mestalla provides the venue for the clash between hosts, Valencia, and visitors, Getafe, with both teams heading into this Sunday encounter seeking to improve upon their current respective league positions in La Liga.
Valencia find themselves in somewhat unfamiliar territory as the hosts occupy a place in the bottom half of the Spanish top flight in 14th place and their situation hasn’t been helped by the fact that they’ve suffered three league defeats on the trot in recent weeks.
Defeats to Real Betis 2-0 at home along with back-to-back 2-1 losses on their travels away at Villarreal and Elche respectively have handed Valencia a dismal start to their new La Liga campaign and they’ll no doubt be desperate to avoid a fourth defeat on the trot against Getafe.
Victories have been sporadic for Valencia to date in this new term as they’ve picked up wins against Levante and Real Sociedad but at least the hosts have hit the back of the net on a regular basis, scoring in six of their seven matches to date.
Getafe, by comparison, are currently enjoying life in the top half of La Liga as the visitors sit in 9th place but they too will be keen to return to winning ways following their recent disappointing 1-0 defeat at home to Granada.
It’s been a mixed campaign so far for Getafe in the domestic top flight as they’ve been impressive overall on home turf at their Coliseum Alfonso Pérez but have struggled on the road for some time, failing to win any of their last eight matches on their travels.
Despite collecting three wins out of their four matches played to date at home with victories over Osasuna, Real Betis and most impressive of all, Barcelona, Getafe’s failure to register wins on the road has let them done so far this term.
Out of their last eight away matches, Getafe have failed to score in six of these and the visitors’ inability to score goals on the road may well hold them back again at Valencia on Sunday.
That said, three of the previous four encounters between these two clubs have resulted in three goals or more being scored and this Sunday’s clash could see further goals, but Valencia look the more likely to grab the points.