Valencia v Barcelona: Preview, expected line-ups, stats and where to watch

La Liga, Round 4

Valencia VAL

6/09/2026 15:15

Barcelona BAR

Estadio de Mestalla

Valencia v Barcelona La Liga preview

Barcelona will look to maintain their perfect start to the 2026-27 La Liga season when they travel to Mestalla to face Valencia on Sunday afternoon.

The reigning champions have won all three of their opening league matches and sit top of the table, while Valencia have collected just one point from their first three games.

Valencia have endured a difficult start to the new La Liga campaign, taking just one point from their opening three matches.

Barcelona remain comfortably ahead in the overall head-to-head record, winning 115 of the 232 previous meetings between the clubs. Valencia have recorded 60 victories, with the other 57 matches ending in draws.

Hansi Flick’s side have been in excellent form at the beginning of their title defence.

Barcelona opened their campaign with a 5-0 win away to Elche before beating Athletic Bilbao 2-0 at home.

They then produced another five-goal performance against Rayo Vallecano, running out 5-2 winners to move onto nine points.

Valencia v Barcelona La Liga team news

Valencia have several players unavailable for Sunday’s fixture.

Justin de Haas, Sergi Canos, Jose Copete, Diego Lopez, Guido Rodriguez and Umar Sadiq are all expected to miss out through injury.

Dimitri Foulquier and Luis Rioja will both need to be assessed before kick-off after suffering muscle problems.

Sadiq is the only Valencia player to have scored so far this season, but Sato and Arnaut Danjuma are expected to feature in the final third against the champions.

Barcelona will be without Frenkie de Jong, Roony Bardghji and Jesse Bisiwu, while Gavi remains a doubt with a knee problem.

Rodri is expected to continue his gradual introduction to the team and could once again be used from the bench.

Marc Bernal and Pedri should therefore continue in central midfield.

Raphinha has made an excellent start to the campaign, scoring five goals and providing one assist in his three La Liga appearances, and he is expected to keep his place in the attack.

Fermin Lopez should operate as the number 10, with Lamine Yamal and Gordon providing width.

Valencia v Barcelona predicted line ups

Valencia: Dimitrievski; Diakhaby, Tarrega, Martinez; Maffeo, Guerra, Urgrinic, Pepelu, Gaya; Sato, Danjuma

Barcelona: J Garcia; E Garcia, Cubarsi, Martin, Espart; Pedri, Bernal; Yamal, Fermin, Gordon; Raphinha

Valencia v Barcelona stats, La Liga form

• Valencia beat Barcelona 3-1 at home in the teams’ most recent meeting in May, ending their 12-match winless run against them (D2 L10) since January 2020, when they prevailed 2-0 at home in La Liga
• They had lost each of the preceding five encounters in all competitions by an aggregate score of 24-4, including two home defeats
• The only team Valencia have beaten in their last five home matches is Barca, losing two and drawing two of their games along the way
• More than three hours have passed since Valencia last scored at home, failing to score in three of their last five matches at Mestalla and conceding the first goal in four of them
• Celta, Malaga and Getafe are the only teams in the 2026/27 Liga to have scored as few goals as Valencia (1), with the latter two sides (4 each) the only clubs to have had fewer attempts on target than Loc Che’s total of nine
• Barcelona have 115 wins to Valencia’s 60 in the all-time head-to-head between the teams, who have shared 57 draws
• With 31 goals, Barca all-time top scorer Lionel Messi has 13 more than any other player in the history of the fixture, contributing to a total of 462 goals for his team against Valencia, who have scored 335 in reply
• Raphina’s total of five goals in three matches made the Brazil forward the top scorer in La Liga before the latest round of matches, one ahead of Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe
• Only Raphina and Mbappe have outscored Barca’s Fermin Lopez in this season’s division, with the Spain international one of eight players to have netted more than twice before this weekend’s games
• Barca’s total of 12 goals puts them two ahead of the next-highest scorers in the division, Real Madrid, who lead the way for attempts on target (27), one ahead of Blaugrana

Where to watch Valencia v Barca: TV channel, live online streams

Kick-off on Sunday is at 15:15 BST (10:15 ET / 07:15 PT), with live coverage in the UK on Premier Sports 2 and streaming available on a vast range of devices via the Premier Sports app.

A Premier Sports subscription costs £120 a year, £11.99 per month on a 12-month contract or £16.99 per month with 30 days’ cancellation notice required.

Here’s the full list of La Liga international broadcasters.

Valencia v Barcelona La Liga prediction

Match Prediction

Valencia

1 – 3

Barcelona

Valencia will take confidence from their 3-1 victory over Barcelona at Mestalla last season, but the Catalan side have started this campaign in much stronger form.