La Liga Betting – Valencia vs. Barcelona

Valencia (+500) vs. Barcelona (-175) (Draw +333)

The 13th set of fixtures in Spain’s La Liga get underway this weekend. In one of the best matches, second-place Barcelona faces fourth-place Valencia at Mestalla on Sunday, November 30 (3:00 p.m. Eastern).

Barca is favored to win, despite playing away from home, listed at -175 in the moneyline. Meanwhile, a Valencian victory will pay +500 and the draw +333.

The squads have met 42 times in La Liga play and Barcelona dominates the series with 22 wins and ten defeats; the other ten ended in a draw. Looking a little deeper at the numbers, the last time Valencia beat Barcelona at Mestalla was back in the 2006-2007 when they won 2-1.  Since then, the Catalans have not lost to Valencia – home or away – with three wins and four draws in the last seven.

Despite not having the green light to play this Sunday, injured midfielder Andres Iniesta was back on the field on Thursday. He trained alongside his teammates, and early suggestions are that he’ll travel to Valencia on Sunday.

The return of Iniesta would be a welcome addition for Barcelona as they attempt to track down Real Madrid at the top of the table; as mentioned, Barcelona is second in the table, and their 28 points puts them just two back of leaders Real Madrid.

Meanwhile, Valencia is fourth with 24 points (7W, 3D, 2L), and is eager to show it can hang with the powerhouses of Spanish football.

“They [FC Barcelona] are a great team and we want to get back to being a top team. It’s in these games that we want to show that we are doing well. We are playing at home and will do everything possible to win the game, because we are Valencia CF,” said Valencia midfielder André Gomes.

Valencia can do all they like. The safest bet is that Barcelona will keep dominating the series.

(Photo credit: Christopher Johnson (Lionel Messi) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped.)