🏏 Sat, 22 Aug 2026 19:30 CEST
Valencia
vs
Celta Vigo
5-4-1 vs 3-4-3
Substitutes
Substitutes
Match Preview
- Neither Valencia nor Celta Vigo has a completed league fixture on the table going into this one, so the first numbers of their campaign will be written at Mestalla. Sevilla, meanwhile, already sit top on six points from two games, which leaves both of these sides with ground to make up in games played as well as points.
- Ryunosuke Sato, 19, starts in Valencia's midfield four wearing No.39. A product of the FC Tokyo system, where he spent around a decade after joining the club's football school, he scored six goals in 19 J1 League games last season before completing a permanent move to Spain in July 2026. At 171cm he relies on technique and forward drive as a central midfielder, and how the long-time Japan youth international handles a La Liga midfield is the headline storyline.
- The shapes are Valencia's 5-4-1 against Celta's 3-4-3. The hosts stack the back line with two 194cm defenders: César Tárrega, the 24-year-old academy product who developed on loan at Real Valladolid and boasts one of the best aerial duel records in the division, and Dutchman Justin De Haas, 26, who arrived via PSV Eindhoven. Their brief is to squeeze out the space Celta's front three want to attack.
- Carrying that 5-4-1 alone up front is 29-year-old Arnaut Danjuma. The Netherlands international made his name in Europe with Villarreal and has since taken in Bournemouth, Tottenham Hotspur, Everton, Club Brugge and Girona. Explosive pace and cut-inside shooting are his tools, and with little support around him the question is whether he can finish counter-attacks on his own.
- Celta's front three is an intriguing mix. Ferran Jutglà, 27, leads it: a Barcelona academy product who scored freely at Club Brugge before joining in 2025, built on aggressive pressing and runs in behind. He is flanked by left-footed Hugo Álvarez, 23, a homegrown Spain Under-21 winger, and 20-year-old El Abdelaoui, born in Norway but committed to Morocco after being named Vålerenga's young player of the year.
- There is a reunion element too. Celta's Ilaix Moriba, 23, came through Barcelona's La Masia and passed through Valencia along with RB Leipzig and Getafe, so Mestalla is familiar ground. The Guinea international is a box-to-box type combining physicality with technique and a fierce shot. Also among the substitutes is 33-year-old Hugo González, a Valencia academy graduate who reached Celta via Cartagena.
- Two veterans give the left flank its weight. Marcos Alonso, 35, takes a place in Celta's back three: a 188cm left-footer who won the Champions League and the Premier League in spells with Chelsea and Barcelona, and whose crossing and set-piece delivery remain first rate. Facing that side is Valencia's academy-raised captain José Gayà, 31, a left-footed specialist who helped the club win the 2019 Copa del Rey.
- The midfield battle carries real quality. Valencia pair 23-year-old Javi Guerra, a 187cm passer whose vision has drawn interest from bigger clubs, with 32-year-old Uruguayan Gastón Rodríguez, a 185cm ball-winner strong in the air, and Switzerland international Filip Ugrinic, 27, a box-to-box runner shaped at Luzern and Young Boys. Celta's tempo runs through 30-year-old Aleix Febas, a 171cm technician developed at Real Madrid Castilla.
- The goalkeepers bring well-travelled résumés. Stole Dimitrievski, 32, is North Macedonia's long-standing No.1 after years with Rayo Vallecano and Granada. Celta start 29-year-old Ionuț Radu, the 188cm Romania international raised in Inter's academy who has since played for Venezia, Bournemouth, Auxerre and Parma among others, with 198cm former Manchester United keeper Altay Bayındır of Turkey behind him.
- Both benches carry genuine match-changers. Celta hold back 39-year-old Iago Aspas, the club's all-time leading scorer with a superb left-footed free-kick, plus Borja Iglesias, 33, a Bundesliga winner with Bayer Leverkusen who has returned to his old club, and Sweden's 22-year-old Williot Swedberg. Valencia counter with Hugo Duro, their 13-goal top scorer in 2023-24, 192cm Nigeria international Umar Sadiq, and David Otorbi, the 18-year-old who became the club's youngest ever debutant at 16.