The twelfth matchday of the Spanish LaLiga 2020/21 will be concluded on Monday evening in the Basque Country. In the small town with 27,000 inhabitants, Eibar and Valencia face each other. Two teams that are currently in the broad midfield of the Spanish league.
Looking at the current LaLiga table is a little confusing, because the number of games played so far is completely different. Nevertheless, it can be seen that more than half of the league is on an equal footing. This is also true for this game. So far, Eibar have 13 points on their credit side, while Valencia have scored twelve points in eleven games.
Even the best bookmakers can expect a duel on Monday evening in which the little things will make the difference. On the three-way market, slightly lower odds on the home win are offered between Eibar and Valencia. However, the Basques are still without home three in the current season. Will this change on Monday? The game starts at 20:00 p.m. in the Ipurua Stadium.
Eibar:
Already the promotion in the 2013/14 season was a huge sensation when Eibar managed to march through from the third division to the Spanish upper house. In many places, the club with the stadium, which can hold just 8,000 spectators, was treated as a permanent relegation, but the underdog is now completing its seventh La Liga season in a row.
The word relegation was only an issue for phases in the debut year, otherwise the club always secured relegation early on. Jose Luis Mendilibar has been head coach in the Basque Country since the second La Liga season, only Atletico coach Diego Simeone (almost nine years) has been in office longer than Mendilibar.
Despite manageable financial resources, Eibar succeeds year after year in building a powerful team. While constancy is popular in the coaching sector, this is not the case in the squad. Many players can only be signed on loan, so the upheaval is correspondingly great year after year.
The fact that the interim conclusion has been positive in the season so far is due to the strong performances on foreign turf. Ten points have already been collected in five away games, including Eibar prevailing 1-0 against reigning Europa League winners Sevilla.
At home, on the other hand, the services are extremely poor. None of the six home games were won (three draws, three defeats). However, the offensive performance is devastating, because in these six home games only one goal (!) Was scored in the 1: 2 defeat against Athletic Bilbao.
Valencia:
While the Basques from Eibar have written consistently positive headlines with their sovereign relegation in recent years, fans of the bats from Valencia are by no means to be envied in recent months. Owner Peter Lim has lost all interest in the club and is pursuing a worrying austerity course.
Given the activity on the transfer market, it was only logical that Valencia would have a tough season ahead of them. Many well-known players have left the club, no replacements have been signed, because the primary goal was to downsize the large, bloated squad.
However, this was clearly at the expense of quality. The remaining veterans like Kevin Gameiro, Denys Cheryshev or Sergio Escudero are not able to go ahead and lead the many young talents. In addition, there is also a lot of bad luck with injuries. On Monday evening, captain Jose Gaya, top talent Kang-In Lee, central defender Mouctar Diakhaby and the aforementioned Cheryshev will not be available.
Last weekend, the bats conceded a narrow 1-0 defeat against leaders Atletico Madrid through an unfortunate own goal by Gaya substitute Toni Lato. After three unbeaten games (including a spectacular 4-1 against Real Madrid) there was another bankruptcy to deal with.
Nevertheless, the upward trend in the last few weeks cannot be denied. Against Atletico, the defense was particularly convincing, with hardly any scoring opportunities. Valencia can build on these small successes, because the necessary points in the fight for the league’s whereabouts have to be won against other teams.
