Valencia and Atlético de Madrid met at Mestalla at 16:15h on a day of heavy rotation, with Carlos Corberán making only one change to his team and Diego Simeone turning over his side almost completely.
Corberán’s only alteration came because Lucas Beltrán was unavailable, so Javi Guerra stepped into the lineup that also included Dimitrievski, Saravia, Pepelu, Tárrega, Gayà, Guido, Rioja, Ugrinic, Ramazani and Sadiq. Simeone, by contrast, made 11 changes from Atlético’s Tuesday side and did not even repeat his goalkeeper, leaving Le Normand as the only player from his more or less usual starting group to keep his place.
The match mattered immediately to Valencia because it came after four straight league defeats against Atlético, and the club had never lost five consecutive LaLiga meetings with the Madrid side. They reached this game after beating Girona at home in their previous league match, while Atlético arrived after a win over Athletic at the Metropolitano.
There was also a personal edge to the afternoon for Dimitrievski. The Valencia goalkeeper was trying to wipe out the memory of August 2023, when he was in the Rayo side that lost 0-7 to Atlético, the heaviest defeat of his career. In the background, a Valencia victory would lift the team eight points clear of the relegation zone with four rounds left, while Atlético came in having dropped 25 points from winning positions this LaLiga season, more than any other side.
That tension made the lineups matter as much as the scoreline itself. Valencia needed to break a losing run and protect a fragile safety margin; Atlético, with one eye on an overloaded schedule and the Arsenal tie, arrived with a reshaped team that showed how far Simeone was willing to go to manage it.
