La Liga Game of the Week, Week 8 Odds
Atletico Madrid v Valencia
10/19/19, 15:00 PM Kick-Off (CEST)
2019/20 La Liga Season Week 9
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La Liga Game of the Week: Atletico Madrid vs Valencia
Back to back goalless draws for Atletico Madrid have cooled their hot start to the season that began with three consecutive wins. They come up against an in-form Valencia side who’s won their last two games after just one win in their first six league games.
Atletico sits 3rd in La Liga, three points off Barcelona who’s top. Despite the decent start to the season, Atletico is noticeably struggling with goals. They’ve scored just seven goals in eight league games, which is the joint-lowest amount in the top half of the La Liga table. The departure of Antoine Griezmann this past summer to rivals Barcelona has hindered their ability to score goals, despite the signings of Alvaro Morata and Joao Felix.
However, their stout defense has minimized the cost of their lack of goals, conceding just four goals all season.
Madrid faces Valencia at the worst time, with the latter recently finding their feet this season, majorly down to captain Dani Parejo and new signing Maxi Gomez, who have both pitched in with four goals in the league.
Atletico Madrid Odds vs Valencia Odds
Despite Valencia’s upturn, sportsbooks’ odds on an Atletico Madrid home win open at -143, making them favorites. Odds on a third consecutive Valencia open at +425, according to sportsbooks, who obviously don’t think much of Valencia’s improvement and also take notice of just one Valencia away win in all competitions this season, compared to Atletico’s three.
Odds on a tie open at +250, according to sportsbooks.
Both clubs are 2nd in their Champions League groups with Madrid defeating Lokomotiv Moscow 2-0 in their last outing and Valencia losing 3-0 at home to Ajax.
The odds on an Atletico win make even more sense when you look back at the head to head meetings between the two teams. Valencia’s last win against Atletico Madrid in the league was back in 2014, a poor record for a club like Valencia. In their last six meetings, Atletico came out victorious four times and a tie occurred twice.
Madrid defeated Valencia 3-2 in the corresponding fixture last year.
Valencia has had the fortune of being given five penalties already this season, two more than the second-placed team in La Liga. If you took away all their penalties scored this season, they would drop from 8th to 17th in the league.
Only five teams have scored more goals than Valencia this season and while they can score goals, they are coming up against one of the best defenses of the decade in Atletico Madrid.
Despite colossal losses of key defenders in recent years such as Filipe Luis, Miranda, and Diego Godin, manager Diego Simeone has continued to instill his defensive mindset into his team, a mindset that has seen them become Europe’s most feared backline in Europe since he took over in 2011.
