La Liga: Las Palmas – Valencia

Las Palmas and Valencia meet today (21:00, Movistar) in a clash that will serve as a test of both teams’ ambitions to play in Europe next year. The Black and Whites have won five of their last six games and the Yellows are looking to turn things around at home, where they have lost their last two league games.

• How to get to Las Palmas
• Las Palmas wants to break a short negative streak of two games without a win. A win over Valencia would mean de facto consistency and give him the opportunity to think about a more ambitious goal, although Garcia Pimienta is of the opinion that consistency is the goal. The coach reinstates Javi Muñoz and Julian Araujo after serving their respective sanctions. Lemos and Curbelo will remain unavailable due to injury, as will Nuke Mfulu, still playing in the African Cup of Nations.

• How Valencia arrives
• Baraja will have to rebuild the team after the loss of Diego Lopez, who was out for some time due to a broken cheekbone. He could choose Amalla or repeat with Yaremchuk at the helm. Whether he will take Diakhaby directly from the African Cup of Nations into the starting lineup, as is being speculated this week, is another question. The Valladolid coach still hasn’t mentioned Europe’s options – not even a word – but with the team all but saved, it’s only normal to start looking up.

• Duel match
• Munir vs. Hugo Duro. Few strikers in the league can compare with Hugo Duro, who is in the best form of his career with ten goals, two assists and two draws. But Munir (2 goals, 1 assist) knows his former teams well and won’t want to miss the match to try and get Las Palmas back on track. Some nice fights are expected at the venues, and we will have to be careful.