Valencia vs Mallorca 01/09/19

1 September 2019

Still chasing their elusive first win of the 2019/20 La Liga (LL) season, Valencia welcome the newly-promoted Mallorca to the Estadio de Mestalla.

The hosts have struggled to pick up three points in the opening two LL matchdays (D1, L1) with both of those clashes featuring under 2.5 goals. Although only Barcelona and Atletico Madrid lost fewer home games than Valencia (2) last season, the Bats played out ten home draws in 19 LL outings at this venue in the 2018/19 campaign – LL high. Marcelino Garcia Toral’s men kicked off the 2019/20 home season pretty much the same way, being held to a 1-1 draw by Real Sociedad in the opening matchday. Interestingly, two of the last four Valencia’s LL H2Hs with Mallorca at this venue have ended in a stalemate (W1, D2, L1), while both of their wins in that sequence saw the Oranges score two or more goals and keep a clean sheet.

Meanwhile, the visitors returned to the top flight after a five-year absence with a 2-1 home win over Eibar. However, the returnees go into this fixture off the back of a narrow 1-0 home loss to Real Sociedad. Preparing to kick off their 2019/20 LL away campaign, Los Bermellones will look to improve on their disastrous away form from the final stage of last season. They’ve not only failed to secure a win in their final five trips in the Segunda Division last term, but they’ve suffered four defeats in that period, three of which were to nil (D1, L4).