Marcelino Garcia Toral’s Valencia face an expensively reinforced Atletico Madrid on Monday night in their first game of the new La Liga season.
Valencia have had a promising preseason, beating Galatasaray, Everton and Bayer Leverkusen convincingly, and strengthening their squad with eight new signings, including the midfielder Geoffrey Kondogbia from Inter Milan for £20m and the forward Kevin Gameiro from Atletico Madrid for £13m, now facing his former club.
Diego Simeone has bolstered the Europa League winners with new £60m signing Thomas Lemar, who will add to the considerable firepower of Antoine Griezmann and Diego Costa, and there are plenty tipping Atletico for a title tilt.
What time does it start?
Valencia vs Atletico Madrid kicks off at 7PM (BST).
Where can I watch it?
The match will be shown in the UK on Eleven Sports. Subscribers can watch through iOS mobile and tablet apps as well as Android mobile.
It’s a big game for…
Thomas Lemar: The French winger scored 22 goals last season for AS Monaco in the French first division, and can add an extra dimension to Atletico's play. He will want to get off to positive start in his first ever La Liga appearance.
Remember when…
The most memorable game between these two teams came in the 2012 Europa League semi-finals where Atletico Madrid managed a 4-2 win in the first leg thanks to two sublime goals from Radamel Falcao, going onto win the final against fellow Spanish side Atletico Bilbao.
Player to watch…
Antoine Greizmann: The World Cup winner will be hoping to get the 18/19 season off to a flying start after what he’ll view as a slightly disappointing season, scoring less than 20 goals. After some speculation around the 27-year-old considering a move away from Atletico, he will be wanting to make his decision to stay worthwhile.
Past three-meetings…
- Atletico Madrid 1 (A.Correa) Valencia 0 February 2018
- Valencia 0 Atletico Madrid 0 September 2017
- Atletico Madrid 3 (A. Griezmann 2, Gameiro 1) Valencia 0 March 2017
Odds…
- Valencia to win: 23/10
- Atletico Madrid to win: 6/5
- Draw: 9/4
- (Odds provided by 888 Sport)
