Valencia v Villarreal:
Santi Cañizares returns for Valencia following his suspension at the weekend, and Fabián Ayala is in contention for a place in the starting line up, having returned to the squad for the last game after 3 months out injured. Carlos Marchena may lose his place as a result.
ESPN think Miguel may also be in line to start on the right wing. Pablo Aimar is also expected to return in place of Mista'.
Valencia will be without Fabio Aurelio, Patrick Kluivert, Vicente Rodríguez and Edu through injury, while Mora, Carboni and Rufete have been left out by the manager.
For Villarreal, Riquelme is back after suspension. ESPN say this means either that Guille Franco will be pushed up front alongside Forlán, or that he'll be on the bench and José Mari will be up front with Forlán.
Villarreal will be without Roger García, Juan Pablo Sorín, Javi Venta and Antonio Guayre through injury.
PROBABLE LINEUPS (from ESPN):
VALENCIA: Cañizares, Miguel, Ayala, Albiol, Moretti; Angulo, Albelda, Baraja, Regueiro; Aimar and Villa.
VILLARREAL: Viera, Josemi, Gonzalo, Alvarez, Arruabarrena; Senna, Tacchinardi, Font, Riquelme: Jose Mari or Guille Franco and Forlán.
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Tough one to call this. Valencia are in pretty poor form of late, 4 games without a win, and at the weekend they lost their 16 game unbeaten run (which incidentally stretched back to when they last played Villarreal at the start of November, with Villarreal winning 1-0). Villarreal aren't in the best of form either at the moment, especially away from home where they've now gone 6 games without a win (0-3-3). H2H stats between these two in Valencia are very much in the home side's favour - Valencia have won the last 4 meetings at the Mestalla (including one in the
UEFA Cup and one in the Spanish Cup), and have won 7 of the last 8 overall.
This one's too close to call for me. If I was forced to choose, I'd probably just about side with Valencia. For anyone interested, Valencia (-0.5) is 1.95 with
Bet365, with Villarreal (+0.5) the same price. No bet for me though.