(Football news) La Blaugrana are currently 14 points behind Real Madrid atop the rankings, and their visitors’ hopes of qualifying for Europe were dashed last time out when they lost 2-1 to Real Betis.
Barcelona’s hold on the Spanish first division title grew increasingly tenuous in a very contentious Clasico, following their reverse Remontada defeat of Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final eight, which dashed their ambitions of winning the continent.
As the white-clad home crowd rejoiced in Jude Bellingham’s late winner, an apoplectic Blaugrana ranted and raved about Lamine Yamal’s phantom goal – club president Joan Laporta went as far as to threaten legal action if the ball was found to have crossed the line – but the Blaugrana chief was in a more buoyant mood earlier this week.
Indeed, after weeks and weeks of affirming that he would not be reversing his exit decision under any circumstances – having announced his resignation after January’s loss to Villarreal – head coach Xavi has suddenly had a change of heart and will stay on to lead Barca for the 2024-25 campaign after all.
The reigning La Liga champions hit a rich vein of form after Xavi dropped his first exit bombshell, but their Clasico defeat coupled with Real Madrid’s 1-0 beating of Real Sociedad on Friday night leaves them 14 points adrift of Los Blancos, albeit with a match in hand.
In spite of their last two failures, Barcelona ought to take solace from their three-match La Liga winning run on home turf – keeping clean sheets against Mallorca, Getafe and Las Palmas in the process – but victory on Monday would surely just delay the inevitable.
Likewise, Valencia make the trip to Catalonia having seen their own end-of-season aspirations suffer a cruel blow last weekend, where their three-match unbeaten run came to an end with a home loss to fellow European chasers Betis, inspired by a former Premier League striker.
Two strikes from Ayoze Perez either side of a Pepelu penalty reply propelled Manuel Pellegrini’s men into the top seven at the expense of their hosts, who will kick off Monday night in eighth position, albeit with just a one-point gap to make up to their Europa Conference League rivals.
Even challenging for the continental positions marks a significant improvement for Los Che, whose dramatic fall from grace saw them just about avoid demotion to the second tier in 16th place in 2022-23, and finishing in the top eight would represent their best result since 2018-19.
Valencia had won three straight away La Liga games before losing to Betis. They had previously won 1-0 away to Granada and Osasuna, but they had not won three straight away La Liga games since November 2017. Their head-to-head against Monday’s hosts is, predictably, not one to look forward to.
Los Che had only won one of their previous fifteen matches against Barcelona, and they have lost five of their seven encounters with the Blaugrana. Nevertheless, Ruben Baraja’s team rallied to hold the reigning champions to a 1-1 draw at Mestalla shortly before Christmas.
Also read: Chelsea will play Aston Villa in the English Premier League
