Valencia, winless at home in LaLiga, host Real Madrid, who can draw level with Barcelona

Real Madrid can draw level with Barcelona on 30 points at the top of LaLiga if they win at Valencia on Saturday (21:00), but the hosts are still waiting for their first league win of the season at Mestalla, their stadium: two points from six home games. Barcelona visit Atlético Madrid the following night.

Stakes at both ends

Real Madrid are third on 27 points, three behind Barcelona and one behind Atlético Madrid, the two teams who meet at Atlético's Metropolitano stadium on Sunday. Valencia are 19th on 9, one point behind 17th-placed Elche, the first club outside the relegation zone. Both of their wins this season were 1-0 away, at Alavés and at Elche on 1 November, and their 8 goals in 11 games are level with Getafe and Málaga for the fewest in the league. At Mestalla they have drawn 0-0 with Celta Vigo and Athletic Club and lost four times, scoring 3 and conceding 11.

Real Madrid's run

Coach José Mourinho's side have won four league games in a row since a 2-1 defeat at Atlético on 20 September: Villarreal 1-0 and Sevilla 4-1 at home, then 2-1 at Barcelona in the Clásico and 3-0 at Racing Santander on 1 November. Kylian Mbappé has 12 league goals, second to Barcelona's Raphinha on 15, and five of them came in the last three league games. On Wednesday Madrid won 3-2 at AEK Athens in the Champions League after trailing twice, Fede Valverde scoring the winner in stoppage time. Mourinho said on Friday: "I consider tomorrow's game one of the hardest in the whole of LaLiga," and that his worry is that the opponent is fresh.

Team news

Real Madrid's Vinícius Júnior is serving the last of a four-match ban, given for pulling an opponent's hair and protesting to the referee in the game against Villarreal on 10 October, when he was sent off. Madrid won all three league games he has already missed, by an aggregate 9-2. Madrid midfielders Tchouaméni and Arda Güler return after being left out of the Athens squad; Madrid's Rodrygo and Asencio are injured and their team-mate Mendy is again not in the group. Valencia coach Javier Aguirre said his team need a "perfect" game, and that Mbappé has "an unstoppable one-on-one, but there are eleven of us".

A farewell at Mestalla

According to Mundo Deportivo, Mestalla stops being Valencia's home from next season, which makes this the last league meeting there. It has been a hard ground for Madrid: Europa Press counts 38 league defeats there in the club's history, the third most at any away ground. Mourinho knows it too: his first trophy with Real Madrid came at Mestalla, in the 2011 Copa del Rey final.