La Liga: Sunday Matches Previews: January 16, 2011

Valencia vs Deportivo La Coruna

Valencia really need to work on their home form if they are going to finish the league in their usual third place, as it stands the team is in fourth place and situated behind Villarreal. This is more than a little bit unusual and unexpected considering the fantastic start that they had to the season

This dip in places seems to be largely to do with the amount of draws that seem to be happening on their home turf. This is the sort of match that they should be winning without to much difficulty, not due to the fact that Coruna are a bad team simply due to the fact that this a home match which isn’t against one of the big two.

Los Che have only won five of their nine home matches this season and have been on the receiving end of some serious disappointments. Deportivo are coming off the back of two defeats this week, although fortunately for the side as it stands they are well clear of the relegation zone, which is almost certainly their target now for this season.

Almeria vs Real Madrid

Almeria will not be expecting an easy match and who would, the home side have been in the relegation zone for some time and aren’t showing any signs of turning their game around, the only real threat that they have going forward is Piatti.

Real Madrid are expected to and probably will walk all over this side. A loss would be a major upset and a draw would be almost equally as embarrassing, the question isn’t whether Real Madrid will win, but by how much they will win.

The real issue that is facing Real is that there is a great deal of pressure for the side to win this match and convincingly at that, they need every point that they can possibly get if they are to keep the pressure on Barcelona who are still two points ahead in the title race.

Barcelona vs Malaga

If Barcelona manage to win this match then they will break yet another club record. In fact, they don’t even have to quite manage a win as a draw will do to see them top their longest ever unbeaten streak, a draw this weekend will see them move on to a total of 28 matches unbeaten and if they don’t manage either a draw or a win then they will have succeeded in shocking all of the worlds pundits in one fell swoop.

Barcelona did have a rather disappointing draw against Bilbao in the Copa del Rey recently, but other than that they have been on sparkling form. This match is going to end in a Barcelona win, if you are going to place a bet then your best bet is probably going to be betting on the amount of goals scored.

Although Malaga have made things at least a little bit interesting with by bringing in a lot of new players, eight in total, the likes of Baptista, Demichelis and Maresca have all been snapped up in the transfer window. It would certainly seem that Malaga are not a team which Is lacking in ambition, who knows, this team of new to the club players may just surprise us all.

Joe - livescoredaily.com - live scores