Sports Mole previews Sunday's La Liga clash between Celta Vigo and Valencia, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.

Celta Vigo and Valencia head into their final La Liga fixture of the season on Sunday with only pride to play for.

While the home side have recently moved into 14th position in the standings, Valencia require a point to guarantee ninth place.

Match preview Reuters

When Celta Vigo made the managerial appointment of Claudio Giraldez in March, the powers-that-be at Balaidos would have anticipated an upturn in fortunes.

However, collecting 16 points from nine matches has perhaps exceeded their expectations, Giraldez proving that he was the right man to take on the reins.

Each of his three defeats have come on their travels, losing to Real Betis, Alaves and Atletico Madrid respectively.

Nevertheless, prevailing at Granada last time out helped back up an outstanding run on familiar territory, the Sky Blues accumulating 13 points from five matches.

While Celta only sit three points clear of 17th position, they will have ambitions of rising to 12th with a third triumph in succession.

There was a time when it appeared that Valencia would enter the closing week of the season very much in the hunt for a European spot.

Instead, a six-game winless streak that has included five defeats has resulted in Ruben Baraja's side sitting eight points adrift of seventh.

Although it is a considerable improvement on the 16th spot achieved during 2022-23, all momentum has been lost and Baraja needs to end the campaign on a high note.

Valencia have reached double figures (10) when it comes to away defeats in La Liga, yet it should be noted that the last two losses came at Barcelona (4-2) and Real Sociedad (1-0).

Celta Vigo La Liga form:

Valencia La Liga form:

Team News Reuters

Giraldez made a double change at half time against Granada, it working to good effect as Celta came through with another victory.

Fran Beltran and Jonathan Bamba, who scored one of the two goals, could now be recalled in place of one of Renato Tapia and Luca de la Torre, with the other retaining his place courtesy of a hamstring injury suffered by Hugo Sotelo.

As for Valencia, the likes of Thierry Correia and Roman Yaremchuk will hope to come back into the side for final-day starts.

Andre Almeida is also pushing for an opportunity, but Jose Gaya is likely to miss out having lasted just 11 minutes as a substitute versus Girona.

Jesus Vazquez will hope to return to the squad after missing the last game through injury.

Celta Vigo possible starting lineup:Guaita; Manquillo, Starfelt, Jailson; Alvarez, Beltran, Tapia, Bamba, Mingueza; Larsen, Aspas

Valencia possible starting lineup:Mamardashvili; Correia, Mosquera, Ozkacar, Gasiorowski; Lopez, Pepelu, Guerra, Canos; Duro, Yaremchuk

We say: Celta Vigo 1-2 Valencia With these two sides entering this contest in contrasting form, Celta will be backed to continue their strong run. Nevertheless, we are selecting Valencia to regain some confidence in their concluding fixture, even if it will not make up for the disappointment of missing out on Europe.

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