Valencia vs Racing Santander

• In midweek these two sides caused many upset punters as two of the major bets on Thursday fell down as Valencia was beaten at home to Sevilla and Zaragoza were held to a 1-1 draw by Racing. However, when the sides meet on Sunday, there is only one outcome in my mind and that is a comfortable Valencia win who will be determined to make a mends.


• The hosts, however, will have to make do without a couple of key defenders in the shape of Caneira and Marchena but for most of the game, defence will not be in Valencia’s mind so these absentees should not pose a huge problem. Racing will come into this game just looking to steal a point and so will set their stall to defend very early on and it will be up to the home side to break them down.


• So far this season Santander has been pretty fortunate and their current league position of fifteenth may well be the highest they ever manage this year. Typical of their recent good luck was their 1-1 draw away at Zaragoza where they managed to equalize in what was one of their only attacks of the game and Real Zaragoza were left wondering how they had not taken all three points.


• Of their nine league games this season Santander has only been beaten four times and only one of those were away. Their defensive tactics on the road, therefore, have proved quite effective thus far and this is shown by the fact they have only conceded twice in five away matches, holding the likes of Mallorca and Bilbao, and even beating Celta 0-1.


• Valencia has won this fixture three times in the last four – winning twice by two goals to nil and this is what I predict on Sunday evening (a repeat of last year’s score line in fact). The hosts have already beaten Deportivo, Sociedad and Malaga at the Mestalla this season but never by more than one goal – this will soon change.

The Pick :

Valencia

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Valencia is a solid play at 1.50+ on the fixed odds but I do not like playing low odds like that.

HANDICAP BETTING :

Take Valencia even at -1 Asian Handicap at 1.90 with several bookies including Bet365, Expekt, Canbet, Gamebookers and Bet Internet. Medium stakes advised.