Swansea City vs Valencia preview

November 27, 2013
By: Nemanja Lazarevic

Swansea vs ValenciaThe top two sides in Group A will be vying for the first position when they square off at Liberty Stadium, with Valencia desperate to get revenge for the 3-0 defeat at Mestalla.

Swansea haven’t quite managed to repeat the performances from last season, but Michael Laudrup’s side are doing pretty well considering the circumstances.

The team are successfully balancing between their Premier League and Europa League campaigns, and they look on course to another successful season.

Weekend’s away win over Fulham saw the Swans return to the top half of the standings, and they now have a chance to secure their place in the Europa League knockout stages as well.

Having already defeated Valencia 3-0 on the road, the Liberty Stadium outfit are rightly considered 2.10 (11/10) favourites to win the return match as well.

Michael Laudrup faces some selection problems as Michu, Wayne Routledge and Gary Monk remain sidelined, but Pablo Hernandez could return from a thigh problem.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Vorm – Tiendalli, Amat, Chico, Taylor – Shelvey, Britton – Hernandez, Pozuelo, Lamah – Bony.

Valencia are going through a very difficult season and it appears club chiefs are slowly losing patience with coach Miroslav Djukic.

Even though he has inherited a weakened squad, the Serbian coach has utterly failed to get the maximum out of his players, with the team still struggling to find any consistency.

Three straight Europa League wins that followed the 3-0 loss to Swansea saw los Che climb to the first place in the standings, but it is there La Liga showings that are a major cause for concern.

Valencia have now lost four of last six league matches to slip to eleventh in the overall standings, meaning they have no choice but to try and turn things around by beating Swansea at Liberty.

However, that looks like a very difficult task, as witnessed by odds of 3.75 (11/4) offered at Stan James on los Che to claim maximum points.

Goalkeeper Vicente Guaita is a major doubt with a shoulder problem, whereas key midfielder Ever Banega is likely to miss out with a knee injury.

Probable starting line-up (4-1-3-2): Alves – Fuego, Barragan, Mathieu, Guardado – Romeu – Canales, Fede, Pabon – Jonas, Postiga.

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