Valencia vs Eibar 04/01/20

4 January 2020

Valencia and Eibar will kick-off 2020 at the Estadio de Mestalla, with the home side looking to post their first win in La Liga (LL) H2Hs since 2016.

Valencia completed the previous calendar year with back-to-back LL draws with Real Madrid and Valladolid, both of which have come via the identical 1-1 scoreline and witnessed all the goals arriving inside the final 15 minutes of play. Still, the hosts are now unbeaten in four consecutive league matches (W2, D2) and have yet to taste defeat on home turf so far this season (W4, D5). Los Ches will be looking to maintain that momentum here, as they hope to put Eibar’s six-game unbeaten run in top-flight H2Hs to an end. Indeed, they have drawn a blank in four of those above six H2Hs, failing to pick up a single win in their last three LL clashes held here (D1, L2). Also, the Oranges have been pegged back twice in their previous five league outings and will hope to avoid a similar setback here, even though their defense has recently failed to live up to expectations. Valencia have kept a clean sheet only once in their last 11 LL fixtures, although they’ve allowed over 1.5 match goals on just three of those occasions.

Meanwhile, the visitors have gone from four consecutive LL defeats to back-to-back games without a loss (W1, D1), with both of those matches seeing them keep clean sheets. However, Eibar’s poor away form could be a major influence here (W1, D4, L4), as well as the fact that they’ve drawn a blank in four of their ten LL road trips so far this campaign. Another potential problem for Eibar could be a lack of goals in the recent period, as they’ve failed to find the net in four of their last six league fixtures, scoring over 1.5 match goals once in the other two. Furthermore, Los Armeros have averaged 0.77 goals scored per LL away match, with only three sides netting fewer away goals than them so far (7).