🏏 Sun, 30 Aug 2026 19:30 CEST
Deportivo La Coruna
vs
Valencia
4-4-2 vs 5-4-1
Substitutes
Substitutes
Match Preview
- Neither side has won yet. Deportivo have drawn both of their opening matches to sit 13th on two points with two goals scored and two conceded, while Valencia are 17th with a single point and a goal difference of -1. With Real Madrid already on nine points from three games, both clubs badly need a first victory before the deficit hardens into a habit.
- Valencia have not scored a goal this season. They lost 1-0 to Real Betis on the opening weekend and drew 0-0 with Celta Vigo, conceding only once but finding no way through in either match. Both of those games were at home, so this is their first away trip of the campaign. The bench does offer escape routes: Arnaut Danjuma, Hugo Duro — 13 goals and top scorer in 2023-24 — and Dani Raba, a Europa League winner with Villarreal.
- Deportivo have drawn 1-1 twice, at home to Elche and away at Malaga, for a neat two-for-two record in goals scored and conceded. Back in the top flight after eight seasons away, the promoted side have avoided any early hammering, and a visiting team still hunting its first goal of the season looks like the moment to convert those draws into three points at Riazor.
- Tactically it is Deportivo's 4-4-2 against Valencia's 5-3-2. The visitors will pack the middle with a back five and a midfield trio of Javi Guerra, Pepelu and Filip Ugrinic, leaving the hosts to attack the channels either side of that block with a flat four behind their two strikers. Whoever wins the wide areas should create the better chances.
- Deportivo's front pair mixes a 37-year-old serial scorer with a raw finisher. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, the 187cm Gabon international signed from Marseille, still times his runs in behind superbly after years at Dortmund, Arsenal and Barcelona, and he takes the penalties. Alongside him is Bil Nsongo, whose two goals against Valladolid summed up his part in the promotion. They face 194cm César Tárrega and 189cm Mouctar Diakhaby, so the aerial battle is stacked against the hosts.
- Ryunosuke Sato starts up front for Valencia at 19. A lifelong FC Tokyo player who moved permanently in July 2026, he earned the transfer with six goals in 19 J1 appearances last season and brings technique and drive despite standing just 171cm. Pairing him with the 192cm Umar Sadiq gives Valencia two contrasting profiles, and Deportivo's young centre-back duo — 193cm 19-year-old Bright Ede and 21-year-old Lucas Noubi, signed from Standard Liège — must handle both.
- Valencia's back five blends academy youth with hardened experience. Jesús Vázquez, 23, has been at the club since the age of five and is regarded as the heir to José Gayà on the left, where his crossing is the chief weapon. Diakhaby, formerly of Lyon, partners Tárrega, a homegrown centre-back who matured on loan at Valladolid. On the right is 32-year-old Luis Rioja, naturally a left-footed winger who made 189 LaLiga appearances across five seasons with Alavés. Gayà, the 31-year-old captain, waits on the bench.
- The midfield contrast is compelling. Deportivo run through 163cm playmaker Mario Soriano, an Atlético Madrid academy graduate who started every game of the promotion season and is described as the team's thermometer. Beside him sits 22-year-old Lorenzo Amatucci, a Fiorentina-schooled holding midfielder. Valencia answer with size: 187cm homegrown Javi Guerra and the 185cm ball-winner Pepelu, signed from Levante.
- Angeliño is among the substitutes and his story is worth following. The left-back came through Deportivo's academy before spells at Manchester City, RB Leipzig and Roma, and has come home at 29 on loan from Roma with an option to buy. The starting berth on that flank belongs to 26-year-old Giacomo Quagliata, an Italian who has bounced between the Netherlands and Italy and covers ground relentlessly up and down the touchline.
- The goalkeepers deserve attention too. Leonardo Román was Deportivo's marquee summer signing, arriving from Mallorca for around nine million euros, and the 189cm 26-year-old's form last season earned him a Spain call-up. Valencia's Stole Dimitrievski is a 188cm 32-year-old with long LaLiga service at Rayo Vallecano and Granada and is North Macedonia's first-choice keeper. If chances stay scarce, their shot-stopping could decide it.