Villarreal vs Valencia

Estadio de la Ceramica sets the stage for the latest edition of the famous Derbi de la Comunitat between bitter La Liga rivals Villarreal and Valencia.

Villarreal strengthened their top-four pursuit last weekend with a hard-earned 2-1 victory at Las Palmas, giving themselves a chance to win three consecutive La Liga games for the first time since winning four in a row in March 2024. Interestingly, a narrow 1-0 home triumph against Valencia formed part of that sequence. It should set Villarreal up nicely for this must-win contest, as should their inspiring-looking run of four wins from their last six league outings (D1, L1). Adding to Marcelino Garcia Toral’s optimism, his charges have won back-to-back home league fixtures via an aggregate score of 9-1 after failing to win three such games on the spin beforehand (D2, L1). Furthermore, ‘El Submarino Amarillo’ emerged victorious from six of their last seven home league meetings with Valencia (D1).

Five consecutive top-flight defeats at La Ceramica form part of Valencia’s worst-ever losing away league run against Villarreal, highlighting the size of the task awaiting the traveling side this weekend. Confidence stems from a 2-0 home win against fellow relegation rivals Leganes last weekend. That result marked Valencia’s first set of consecutive La Liga victories this season but wasn’t enough to dig them out of the bottom three. However, ‘Los Ches’ trail 17th-placed Leganes by a single point pre-round despite heading into this matchday as one of only two La Liga sides yet to win on the road in 2024/25 (D4, L7).