Espanyol vs Valencia prediction: SPAIN: LaLiga betting tips on match 2022-10-01 12:00.
With two losses to follow their surprise 1-0 win at Athletic Bilbao in early September, Espanyol now risk ending this La Liga (LL) round in the bottom three, as they did en-route to relegation in 2019/20. That can only add extra urgency to record a first home win since April, and avoid repeating the four-game losing start at home they made that same season.
Many Espanyol fans may already be starting to fear the drop, but even with a loss here, they would still have double the points tally they held after seven rounds in 2003/04. They survived on that occasion, which can give them hope, but expect fireworks even if this game does mark a turnaround, as each of their three prior home games this term have seen at least one dismissal for either side.
After ending September’s action with a second win in three, and continuing a drawless run so far this term (W3, L3), Valencia will travel to the RCDE Stadium with confidence. By a coincidence, their most recent stalemate came in last season’s corresponding H2H, contributing to a strong record here of just one defeat across their previous five visits (W3, D1).
However, that result also stands as part of a poor run of just one league win on hostile turf since the start of March (D4, L3), in addition to three scoring blanks across Valencia’s last five LL road trips. Yet, Gennaro Gattuso’s men have lately been hard to break down once in front, with no loss across the previous four away games to see them net first (W2, D2).
Players to watch: Seeking a first goal against Valencia since stealing a point in February 2019, Martin Braithwaite gave Espanyol hope in their last home game (L 2-3 vs Sevilla), while Samu Castillejo has netted before half-time in both of Valencia’s last two victories.
Hot stat: Just one of the last 14 LL H2Hs has seen the away side on the day score before half-time.