Soccer

Valencia vs. Real Madrid 2018 live stream: Time, TV schedule, and how to watch online

It’s not often that Real Madrid play Valencia while staring up at them in the La Liga table, but that’s where they find themselves on Sunday.

by Conor Dowley

Jan 27, 2018, 1:03 PM UTC

If you buy something from a link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Photo by Patricio Realpe/Getty Images

It’s been a difficult season for Real Madrid so far, with misery, disappointment, and poor form continually being dumped on one another all year long. That leads them to a bizarre situation on Saturday as they head east to face Valencia, sitting a full five points behind their foes and completely out of the La Liga title race just halfway through the season.

That standing is in part due to Valencia’s exciting successes this season, as they’ve combined a pleasing tactical aesthetic with actual on-pitch success. That’s a harder thing to do than it may sound like, but Los Murciélagos have pulled it off, to the tune of winning five of their last six matches in all competitions, and a nine-match winning streak earlier in the season. They also drew Real Madrid 2-2 at the Bernabeu early in the season and drew Barcelona 1-1 at the Mestalla in the match that snapped that longer winning streak back in November, so it’s not as though Valencia have just been beating up on minnows and failing to show up against the elite of the elite.

But Real Madrid sitting below Valencia is as much because of their own failings this season as Valencia’s successes. They’ve won just two of their last six all-competitions matches, just got booted out of the Copa del Rey by lowly Leganes, and have rarely looked like the “old” Real Madrid this season. Or rather, they’ve looked too old at times this season, with their aging core of players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Sergio Ramos, Luka Modric, and Marcelo too often ravaged by injuries or long spells of poor form and slowing skill sets. Los Merengues need to step things up in a big way soon, or their form will continue to deteriorate to the point where they’ll have to fight just to make the Champions League next season — and with just a one-point cushion on fifth place coming into this match, their fight for that relevance may be coming sooner rather than later.