Nuno Espírito Santo is eager to get one over on his friend André Villas-Boas as Valencia take on a “very competitive” Zenit side in their opening Group H fixture.
• Spanish side have made their worst start to a Liga season in 16 years
• Valencia are unbeaten in five home games against Russian teams
• Zenit have not won in seven away matches against Spanish opposition
Possible lineups
Valencia: Jaume; Barragán, Abdennour, Mustafi, Gayá; Enzo Pérez, Parejo, Fuego, Feghouli; Alcácer, Rodrigo.
Out: Alves (knee), Ryan (knee)
Zenit: Lodygin; Smolnikov, Garay, Lombaerts, Criscito, Witsel, Javi García, Shatov, Danny;,Hulk, Dzyuba.
Nuno Espírito Santo, Valencia coach
“I would love to see a sold-out Mestalla helping its team to win. From my humble position, I call for you to come and support us. We have a good team in terms of both quality and quantity. It is a balanced group. We want to progress to the knockout stage, but we know it will be difficult. You have to respect all your opponents.
There is no fear. We want to transform the fear into a challenge. We want to win and we are obsessed with winning every game. We know our opponents, their players and their style. They will be very competitive. They have great players. We are humble and respect them. André [Villas-Boas] and I are friends. We have talked a lot about football, but in this game he is my opponent.”
Weekend results
Sporting Gijon 0-1 Valencia
Paco Alcácer came off the bench and scored the only goal of the game to earn Valencia their first league victory of the season.
CSKA Moskva 2-2 Zenit
Igor Smolnikov’s second league goal of the campaign earned Zenit a late point which ensures they remain six points adrift of league leaders CSKA.
Form guide (all competitions, most recent first)*
Valencia: WDLDW
Zenit: DLWLWW
*This season only
