Barcelona produced an excellent performance to beat Tottenham 4-2 in the Champions League at Wembley and Ernesto Valverde’s side will be hoping for another big showing today in one of the toughest La Liga matches of the season.
The champions travel to Mestalla to face a Valencia side who also had a positive result in Europe on Tuesday evening, and Los Che have consistently made life tough for Barca over the last few seasons.
Barca needed a late Jordi Alba goal to claim a 1-1 draw at Mestalla last season, while the previous season they came from 2-1 down to win 3-2 with an injury time goal from Lionel Messi.
Samuel Umtiti will be missing for Barcelona after suffering from a knee problem, while Sergi Roberto is also out of the clash with a muscular problem. Valencia have no real injury concerns.
Valencia’s start to the season has been disappointing, with Marcelino’s men only claiming their first La Liga win last weekend on matchday seven.
They have been unlucky in some of the games, however, and on Tuesday night they looked extremely dangerous at times during their 0-0 Champions League draw with Manchester United.
As well, Los Che played some excellent football in the second half of their 1-1 draw with Atletico Madrid and will be aiming to make Barca work extremely hard to get anything out of the game.
The Blaugrana have drawn two and won one of their last three league visits to Mestalla, although both of those wins have come from goals in injury time.
RESULTS & FIXTURES
Burnley 1 – 1 Huddersfield
Crystal Palace 0 – 1 Wolves
Leicester 1 – 2 Everton
Tottenham 1 – 0 Cardiff City
Watford 0 – 4 Bournemouth
Man United 3 – 2 Newcastle
Fulham v Arsenal 12pm
Southampton v Chelsea 2;15pm
Liverpool v Man City 4:30pm
