Real Madrid will be aiming to continue their pursuit of La Liga leaders Atletico Madrid when they welcome Valencia to the Spanish capital on Sunday afternoon.
Zinedine Zidane's side are currently second in the table, five points behind Atletico, who also have two games in hand, while Valencia occupy 12th position in Spain's top flight.
Match preview
© Reuters
Atletico will have to go through a terrible spell to allow their bitter rivals Madrid into the title race at this stage, but Zidane's team must simply keep winning and hope that they can somehow be in contention heading into the final straight.
A record of 14 wins, four draws and four defeats from 22 matches has seen the reigning champions collect 46 points, which as mentioned, has left them in second, five points off Atletico, who have two games spare.
Barcelona in third are three points behind Madrid with a game in hand, meanwhile, and Zidane's team are also only four points clear of fourth-placed Sevilla ahead of this weekend's fixtures.
Madrid will enter Sunday's contest off the back of a 2-0 win over Getafe on Tuesday night, with Karim Benzema and Ferland Mendy scoring the goals for the home team, who were without a number of first-team regulars through injury and suspension.
Los Blancos will now be aiming to pick up two more victories in the league against Valencia and Real Valladolid before facing Atalanta BC in the first leg of their last-16 Champions League clash on February 24.
© Reuters
Valencia, meanwhile, shared the points with Athletic Bilbao at San Mames last weekend as Gabriel Paulista's second-half effort cancelled out an own goal from Hugo Guillamon.
There is no getting away from the fact that it has been a tough season for Los Che, but they have picked up four points from their last two matches, also beating Elche at the end of January, to move into 12th position.
Javi Gracia's side are only four points clear of the bottom three, though, meaning that a couple of poor results in succession could see them dragged down the division heading into the final straight.
Valencia have only won two of their 11 away matches in La Liga this season, and they suffered a 3-0 defeat to Los Blancos when the two teams locked horns in the corresponding game last term.
That said, the six-time Spanish champions ran out 4-1 winners when they welcomed Madrid to Mestalla back in November, with Carlos Soler scoring a hat trick for the home side.
Real Madrid La Liga form: WDWLWW
Real Madrid form (all competitions): LLWLWW
Valencia La Liga form: DWDLWD
Valencia form (all competitions): WDLLWD
Team News
© Reuters
Madrid will again be without the services of Rodrygo Goes, Eden Hazard, Sergio Ramos, Federico Valverde, Eder Militao and Alvaro Odriozola this weekend through injury, while Marcelo is also out with the calf problem that he picked up in the final stages of Tuesday's game with Getafe.
Lucas Vazquez and Dani Carvajal have both returned to training and are in contention, though, while the home side will also be boosted by the return of key midfielder Toni Kroos from suspension.
Vazquez is thought to be slightly ahead of Carvajal, meaning that the 29-year-old could get the nod at right-back against Valencia, while Vinicius Junior and Marco Asensio are again expected to operate either side of Benzema in the final third of the field.
Valencia, meanwhile, will be without the services of Guillamon this weekend through suspension, while Mouctar Diakhaby, Cristiano Piccini and Denis Cheryshev are absent through injury.
Los Che are hopeful that Soler will recover from a slight issue, but Eliaquim Mangala is struggling to prove his fitness, meaning that on-loan centre-back Ferro could feature in the middle of the defence.
Manu Vallejo started alongside Maxi Gomez in attack against Athletic and that is again expected to be the case this weekend, with Daniel Wass and Goncalo Guedes operating in the wide positions.
Real Madrid possible starting lineup:
Courtois; Vazquez, Nacho, Varane, Mendy; Modric, Casemiro, Kroos; Asensio, Benzema, Vinicius
Valencia possible starting lineup:
Domenech; Correira, Gabriel, Ferro, Gaya; Wass, Racic, Soler, Guedes; Vallejo, Gomez
We say: Real Madrid 1-0 Valencia
Valencia have had their problems this season but are still a very dangerous side, and Madrid will be aware of the challenge that Los Che could present. The hosts will again be without the services of a number of important players, but are are backing Zidane's side to collect all three points courtesy of a narrow win.
Top betting 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 Real Madrid win with a probability of 67.67%. A draw had a probability of 18.8% and a win for Valencia had a probability of 13.52%.
The most likely scoreline for a Real Madrid win was 2-0 with a probability of 11.25%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (10.24%) and 2-1 (9.77%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (8.89%), while for a Valencia win it was 0-1 (4.05%). The actual scoreline of 2-0 was predicted with an 11.3% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 2-0 win for Real Madrid in this match.
