FC Barcelona VS Valencia prediction

Barcelona are performing well, across all competitions. ‘Bluagrana’ take on Valencia on Thursday at Camp Nou in the first-leg of Copa del Rey semi-final. “It is essential in this first game to score and not to concede. It will be a very balanced, open, and beautiful match for the crowd. It will be difficult for them and also for us. It won’t be like the last time, a 7-0 is not normal for a first game. Valencia were in a delicate position then, but now they have a team that is good enough to win any match. They’re a rival with very fast strikers and wingers, and the distance between the lines are short. A classic 4-4-2 formation is simple and well-worked, and they are counter-attack specialists,” said coach Ernesto Valverde. Vermaelen and Dembele are ruled out.

Valencia lost their last 3 games in all competitions, so ‘Los Che’ need to try and perform better on Thursday. “We are really excited to be in this knock-out round, in the draw we weren’t lucky and got the worst opponent possible, they’re maybe the most in-form team in Europe, and then it is a given that we can’t use all of the players that we would like to be able to. We are going with important absentees, but our motivation will be as high as it can be, as we are going into a tie with the aim of getting to a final. We are going to Barcelona with the resolve to take a good result for then second leg in Mestalla,” said coach Marcelino. Murillo, Garay, Kondogbia and Guedes are unavailable.

All in all, I think that hosts are favourites of this clash. Barcelona are in good form, on the contrary to Valencia who are struggling these days. Besides, visitors have a number of important players unavailable.