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Valencia Club de Futbol was founded in 1919 and is the third-most supported football club in Spain after Barcelona and Real Madrid. They have one of the highest registered paying supporters with 50,000 season ticket holders and 20,000+ in the waiting list. They finished an impressive 4th in the La Liga last season.
Valencia has won a total of six La Liga titles, eight Copa del Rey crowns, one Supercopa de Espana and one Copa Eva Duarte. When it comes to European competition, Valencia has won two Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, one UEFA Cup, one UEFA Cup Winners Cup, two UEFA Super Cups, and one UEFA Intertoto Cup.
Dani Parejo led Valencia with a total of nine league goals last season, his best output since the 2015 season. Parejo started his career with Real Madrid and made a name for himself while playing for Getafe. The 30-year old from Coslada, Spain is the Valencia captain and has been with the club since 2011.
During the summer, Valencia brought in the likes of Jasper Cillessen, Maxi Gomez and Denis Cheryshev from respectively Barcelona, Celta Vigo, and Villareal. I like Cillesen here because the 30-year old Dutch goalkeeper replaces Neto who moves to the Catalan giants. Cillessen has better passing skills than Neto as he identifies targets faster and targets better passing angles.
RCD Mallorca
Real Club Deportivo Mallorca was founded in 1916 and has experienced plenty of ups and downs during their history. The 1960s saw the club earn three promotions including their first to the Primera Division. They struggled to survive during the 1970s and in 2017, they found themselves dwelling in Segunda Division B. But after a double promotion, Mallorca has made it back the La Liga for the 2019/20 season.
This club has won the Copa del Rey once in 2003 and finished as runners-up in two other instances. They won the Supercopa de Espana once and placed second also one time. When it comes to European competition, they finished runner-up in the UEFA Cup Winners Cup in 1998/99. Their best finish in the La Liga was third, which they last reached in 2001.
Lago Junior is the man to keep an eye on for Mallorca. The 28-year old from the Ivory Coast has scored 10 goals for Mallorca when they played in the Segunda Division last season. Not only that, but Lago Junior also delivered 8 assists, second-most on the team behind Salva Sevilla’s nine. He played in a total of 3,196 minutes last season, most on the team. If he can replicate last season’s effort on the big stage, he will be key to Mallorca’s success in the La Liga.
Sevilla also recorded the most recoveries for Mallorca with 313 last season and he will also be crucial to Mallorca’s results. Add in homegrown talent Joan Sastre, the 22-year old right-back who has featured in the club’s rise from Segunda B. Sastre was promoted to the main team in 2017 and has vastly improved since then. He is considered the club’s biggest prospect.
Who Wins?
Valencia has lost just once in their last five matches with four wins. On the other hand, RCD Mallorca has lost thrice in their last five matches with two wins. Head to head, Mallorca is 4-3-3 SU in their last 10 meetings but they enter this contest as the soccer betting underdogs. However, they failed to score twice against Valencia in those ten meetings while Valencia went blank just once.
Valencia is coming off a 0-1 loss to Celtic Vigo and they should be raring to bounce back from that defeat and pour out their frustrations on the promoted RCD Mallorca. Mallorca still needs to prove that they belong in the La Liga. Valencia is a proven commodity but is coming off a defeat. With captain Dani Pareho back for Valencia, I expect the home team to carve out a nice win here. Prediction: Valencia
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