With both sides sitting at the wrong end of the La Liga table after difficult starts to the season, Celta Vigo and Cadiz will square off in an important clash on Friday.
The hosts have collected just one point from their first four outings, while their visitors only sit a point better off, having earned two commendable draws at the start of the campaign before suffering back-to-back defeats.
Match preview
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After an impressive eighth-placed finish last season, Celta Vigo will have headed into the new campaign with plenty of optimism and the hopes of pushing for European football, but they have not got off to an ideal start.
Eduardo Coudet's men were handed a particularly tough opening game, hosting defending champions Atletico Madrid, and an Angel Correa brace fired Los Colchoneros to a 2-1 away win, despite Iago Aspas drawing Os Celestes level on the hour mark.
They were quickly able to put their first point on the board, as a trip to Osasuna ended in a stalemate, but Coudet's side were then handed another defeat heading into the international break, as Inaki Williams netted the only goal in a 1-0 victory for Athletic Bilbao.
Upon their return from the international break last time out, Os Celestes were unable to reverse their fortunes, despite taking the lead against title-chasing Real Madrid on two occasions through Santi Mina and Franco Cervi, as Karim Benzema hit a hat-trick alongside goals from Vinicius Junior and Eduardo Camavinga in a resounding 5-2 win for Los Blancos.
Now sitting on just one point from four outings, Coudet's men will be desperate to put their first win on the board on Friday to kickstart a climb up the table, and they will take confidence from the 4-0 thrashing they dished out to the visitors last season, as Nolito, Aspas, Fran Beltran and Brais Mendez all got on the scoresheet.
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Cadiz arrive with a tally of two points, both of which came in the first two games of the season as Los Piratas looked to have made an impressive start to the new term, having comfortably survived last campaign after winning promotion from the second tier.
Alvaro Cervera's side began with a home clash against Levante, and Alfonso Espino popped up with a 97th-minute equaliser to see them salvage a 1-1 draw, before they earned another impressive point in their trip to Real Betis, as Juanmi drew the hosts level after Alvaro Negredo converted an early penalty for Cadiz.
Los Piratas were unable to build a significant unbeaten run though, as they then fell to a 3-2 defeat at the hands of Osasuna, despite leading 2-1 heading into added time through an Alex Fernandez brace, as Roberto Torres and David Garcia hit late goals to snatch all three points for their opponents.
Cervera's men failed to bounce back from that disappointment when they returned to action on Sunday, as a second-half brace from Mikel Oyarzabal saw Real Sociedad leave Nuevo Mirandilla with a 2-0 victory.
Having failed to build on their commendable start to the season, Los Piratas will now aim for an important result to trigger a turnaround, as they look to avoid getting stuck in the relegation zone as the table begins to take shape.
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Team News
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Celta Vigo should come in with a relatively clean bill of health, after Jose Fontan and Kevin Vazquez were both fit to make the squad for the clash with Real Madrid following spells on the sidelines.
Iago Aspas will continue to lead the line alongside Santi Mina, with the pair having registered combined tallies of 26 goals and 17 assists in La Liga last season.
Meanwhile, Coudet recently made a change to the established trio behind the front two, as Franco Cervi was chosen over Nolito, and he rewarded his manager with a goal in the first half last time out, potentially seeing him keep his place as a result.
Cadiz come into Friday's game without centre-back Cala, who was shown a red card in the defeat to Real Sociedad and will serve a suspension as a result.
He could be replaced by Varazdat Haroyan, who was an unused substitute in that game.
Their line will be led by former Manchester City forward Alvaro Negredo, who hit a crucial tally of eight league goals last season as Los Piratas avoided the drop.
Celta Vigo possible starting lineup:
Dituro; Mallo, Araujo, Murillo, Galan; Tapia; Mendez, Suarez, Cervi; Aspas, Mina
Cadiz possible starting lineup:
Ledesma; Carcelen, Gutierrez, Haroyan, Espino; Salvi, Jonsson, Fali, Fernandez; Negredo, Sobrino
We say: Celta Vigo 2-1 Cadiz
Despite their disappointing start to the season, we fancy Os Celestes to narrowly get over the line on home turf.
With the abundance of quality in their squad, Coudet's men are bound to click sooner rather than later, and we would not be surprised to see them get going on Friday as they welcome a Cadiz side lacking confidence.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Celta Vigo win with a probability of 41.66%. A win for Cadiz had a probability of 31.72% and a draw had a probability of 26.6%.
The most likely scoreline for a Celta Vigo win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.89%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.68%) and 2-0 (7.47%). The likeliest Cadiz win was 0-1 (9.22%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.65%). The actual scoreline of 1-2 was predicted with a 7.3% likelihood.
