La Liga hopefuls Valencia can claim a victory in Eibar

La Liga
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Valencia are desperate to stay in touch with Barcelona at the summit of La Liga and they should reduce the gap by winning away at Eibar.

Los Che have stalled slightly in recent games, drawing at home to Barca and losing to Getafe two weeks ago, but bounced back to defeat Celta Vigo last week and are now five points behind the Catalans.

Defeat at the Coliseum was particularly surprising given that Getafe went down to ten men after 25 minutes but Marcelino's team failed to capitalise on a number of chances which led to Valencia's sole defeat of the season.

Marcelino, credited by many as the man who turned has turned things around at the Mestalla, will have to make do without suspended star striker Simone Zaza but that might not be enough to stop the visitors.

Valencia won their only league game that Zaza didn't feature in 2-0 against Espanyol and his likely replacement Santi Mina has been in fine scoring form when coming off the bench this season.

Eibar have picked up three victories in their last four games to ease relegation fears in the Basque country but they put in a poor performance against Getafe last week and their record against Spain's elite teams has been woeful.

The Gunsmiths have lost 3-0 against Sevilla, 6-1 against Barca and 3-0 against both Villarreal and Real Madrid. Each of those defeats have come away from Ipurua but Valencia should still have the class to inflict further pain on the hosts.

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