Las Palmas have close to full strength as Bigas, Boateng and Viera all return to significantly improve the heavily weakened team which struggled against Deportivo last weekend. Barring the absence of the injured David Garcia, Seiten had his best team available and could name exciting loan winger Halilovic on the bench. Las Palmas will be more ambitious and will expect to dominate and win if they play to their best level, something the club hasn’t managed to do consistently in recent weeks. There are some question marks about the attitude of the players based on actions on and off the field, but the quality is certainly there, so if they combine the two then the home side would get the victory. Las Palmas are losing confidence as well as momentum and looked a shadow of their best in dull draw with Deportivo last time out. They should have their best attacking men back but need the right attitude and intensity to be the strong force they were at the start of the season. The Canarian team will want to be strong and attacking minded from the start of the game and if they fell behind, would take big risks to try and beat a team they have no respect or fear of. Should be an open game regardless of who scores first.
Valencia have no forced moves from their excellent win over Villarreal, the only notable absence is the continued one of Rodrigo. There is one alteration expected, with Voro using a more defensive full back Montoya ahead of Joao Cancelo. This makes them a little more defensive minded and strong down the right, as a consequence less bright offensively. Voro would see one point as a perfectly good result so Valencia will go to Gran Canaria with a fairly cautious and reactive approach. Valencia have the pace and ability to score goals against a team which takes risks and leaves gaps, but the visitors will only open up if they fall behind. Valencia could be reasonably defensive minded in this game, they will respect Las Palmas and be keen to frustrate them without the ball and be clinical and effective with it. A draw is a result they would certainly accept. The visitors will likely target being most dangerous on counter attacks but if they went a goal behind this would change and they would take risks to come back, With the speed in their team, they will have spaces to attack and should score at least once.
Verdict & Prediction
Las Palmas are now sitting in the bottom half after just one win in their last six games, confidence and momentum fading, but Valencia are no longer a club that they respect or fear so their mindset is to win the game and nothing less will please.
Prediction: Las Palmas +0.00 Asian Handicap (same as Draw no Bet, stake returned if match ends in a draw)
Odds: 1.95 SBOBET, 1.94 Pinnacle
