Valencia vs Atletico Madrid 15/02/20

15 February 2020

Valencia and Atletico Madrid will face off at the Estadio de Mestalla in a massive La Liga (LL) encounter that promises very few goals. Indeed, four of their previous five top-flight H2Hs have featured under 2.5 goals, with three seeing the teams enter the halftime break on level terms.

The hosts have suffered a dip in form lately, going from four consecutive games without a loss (W3, D1) to back-to-back defeats that have both witnessed Valencia concede over 1.5 goals. Yet, Los Ches remain one of three sides yet to taste defeat on home turf this season (W7, D5), although just one of their seven home triumphs came against a top-six team. Also, only 25% (three) of their 12 LL home fixtures have produced over 2.5 goals, with just 35.71% (ten) of the 28 goals (scored/allowed) coming in the first half. Additionally, for Valencia, goals have been in short supply recently. They’ve netted one goal or less in three of their last four LL home outings, with three of those matches yielding the exact 0-0 halftime score, too.

As for the visitors, they’ve brought their three-game winless LL run (D1, L2) to a halt with a narrow 1-0 home triumph over Granada last time out. All four of those fixtures were ‘low-scoring affairs,’ with none seeing both teams score and each featuring under 2.5 goals. By extension, ten of Atletico’s 11 LL away matches have produced less than three goals (91%), with Diego Simeone’s side scoring a miserly average of 0.72 goals per league away game. Furthermore, Los Colchoneros have failed to find the net in the first half in ten LL road trips already (league’s second-worst record). But, despite the obvious lack of away goals, Atletico have still managed to score the opening goal (if any) in five of 11 LL road matches (45%).