Valencia v LOSC facts

Valencia were pegged back late at LOSC Lille on Matchday 3 and will hope to avoid a similar slip-up back at Mestalla as they attempt to stay in touch with the top two in Group H.

• A 63rd-minute Denis Cheryshev goal gave Valencia the edge in northern France on 23 October, but the visitors lost Mouctar Diakhaby to a second yellow card in the 84th minute, and five minutes into added time substitute Jonathan Ikoné snatched a first point of this season's UEFA Champions League for LOSC.

• That left Valencia on four points, two adrift of both Ajax and Chelsea, with LOSC in fourth place three points behind the Spanish club.

Previous meetings
• Valencia won three of the four matches between the sides before this season. LOSC avoided defeat in the first match, earning a 1-1 home draw in the 2009/10 UEFA Europa League group stage, but went down 3-1 in the away fixture.

• When the sides reconvened in the 2012/13 UEFA Champions League group stage, Valencia won 2-0 at home and 1-0 in France, Jonas scoring all three of their goals.

Form guide
Valencia
• Rodrigo's 74th-minute goal gave Valencia three points at Chelsea in their first fixture, although they needed a late penalty miss from Ross Barkley to preserve that advantage. They went down 3-0 at home to Ajax on Matchday 2, a second successive European defeat at Mestalla.

• Fourth in the Spanish Liga in 2018/19, this is Valencia's 12th UEFA Champions League group stage campaign. Finalists in both 1999/2000 and 2000/01, they have not reached the last 16 since 2012/13.

• Twelve months ago Los Blanquinegros were also in Group H, finishing third behind Juventus and Manchester United – who they beat 2-1 at Mestalla on Matchday 6 having earlier held out for a goalless draw at Old Trafford – to move into the UEFA Europa League. There they overcame Celtic (3-0 on aggregate), Krasnodar (3-2) and Villarreal (5-1) to reach the semi-finals, where they came up short against Arsenal, losing 3-1 in London and 4-2 at home.

• Valencia had won five successive home European matches before losing to Arsenal last season. They have won 12 of their last 17 continental fixtures at Mestalla, losing the other five. They last drew a European home game in the 2013/14 UEFA Europa League round of 32, 0-0 against Dynamo Kyiv.

• Valencia's last home game against Ligue 1 visitors was a 2-0 reverse to Lyon on Matchday 6 of the 2015/16 UEFA Champions League – just their second home defeat in their 11 matches with French clubs at Mestalla, with nine victories.

• Home and away, Valencia have lost only four of their 25 matches against French clubs (W15 D6), although three of those defeats have come in their last seven matches.

LOSC
• LOSC's first UEFA Champions League group game in seven seasons ended in disappointment on Matchday 1, Ajax inflicting a tenth loss in their 17 away games in the competition proper (W3 D4) with a 3-0 victory in Amsterdam.

• The French club's subsequent home game against Chelsea ended in a 2-1 defeat; Matchday 3 extended their run without a home victory in the UEFA Champions League proper to ten matches.

• Second in Ligue 1 last term, this is LOSC's sixth appearance in the UEFA Champions League group stage and their first since 2012/13. Only one of those previous five campaigns has extended into the knockout rounds, in 2006/07; seven years ago they finished bottom of a section including Bayern München, Valencia and BATE Borisov.

• The French club won their last away group game before this season, 2-0 at BATE in November 2012; they have triumphed in two of their last five away games in the UEFA Champions League proper but overall have won only three of their 17 away games in the competition (D4 L10).

• LOSC's most recent foray into continental competition came in 2016/17 and lasted only one tie, Gabala of Azerbaijan running out 2-1 aggregate winners in the UEFA Europa League third qualifying round (1-1 h, 0-1 a).

• The defeat at Ajax on Matchday 1 extended Les Dogues' run without a European away win to six matches (D2 L4), since a 2-0 success at Grasshoppers in the 2014/15 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round.

• LOSC drew 1-1 at Deportivo La Coruña in the 2000/01 UEFA Champions League first group stage, their first away game against a Spanish club, but have since lost all four matches in Spain. Home and away, they have won only two of their 12 matches against Liga sides (D5 L5) and none of the last six (D2 L4), and have yet to score more than one goal in any of those games.

Links and trivia
• LOSC midfielder Xeka spent 2011/12 in the Valencia youth academy.

• Have played in France:
Mouctar Diakhaby (Lyon 2013–17)
Geoffrey Kondogbia (Lens 2010–12, Monaco 2013–15)
Gonçalo Guedes (Paris Saint-Germain 2017)
Francis Coquelin (Lorient 2010/11)
Kevin Gameiro (Strasbourg 2005–08, Lorient 2008–11, Paris Saint-Germain 2011–13)
Daniel Wass (Évian 2011–15)

• Has played in Spain:
Loïc Rémy (Las Palmas 2017–18, Getafe 2018)

• Have played together:
Gonçalo Guedes & Renato Sanches (Benfica 2015/16)
Gonçalo Guedes & Timothy Weah, Jonathan Ikoné (Paris Saint-Germain 2017)

• International team-mates:
Gonçalo Guedes & Renato Sanches, José Fonte (Portugal)
Kevin Gameiro & Jonathan Ikoné, Loïc Rémy (France)

• A Portugal team containing Sanches and Fonte defeated France 1-0 to win UEFA EURO 2016. Eliaquim Mangala was an unused substitute for France.

Latest news

Valencia
• Valencia ended a four-game run without a victory in all competitions (D3 L1) by triumphing 2-1 at Espanyol on Saturday. That was their fourth win in their last 12 matches (D5 L3).

• Dani Parejo scored his sixth Liga goal of the season at Espanyol, five of them penalties.

• Valencia have 17 points after 13 Liga games this season, the same total they had at the same stage of 2018/19.

• Kevin Gameiro was out between 25 September and 19 October with an adductor problem; a hamstring injury means he has not played since 27 October.

• Gonçalo Guedes was withdrawn at half-time during Portugal's 2-1 UEFA EURO 2020 qualifying defeat in Ukraine on 14 October after suffering an ankle injury, and has not played since.

• Cristiano Piccini (knee) has been out since 24 August.

• José Gayà was sidelined by a hamstring injury between 22 September and 27 October.

LOSC Lille
• LOSC's run without an away victory has been extended to 11 matches in all competitions (D5 L6) with 2-1 losses at Toulouse on 19 October and, on Saturday, Marseille. Les Dogues have picked up only two points from their six Ligue 1 away fixtures in 2019/20.

• LOSC have won five of their six home league matches in 2019/20, most recently beating Bordeaux 3-0 on 26 October. They dropped points only against Nîmes on 6 October (2-2).

• Summer signing Victor Osimhen scored in LOSC's first six home games of the season in all competitions, eight goals in all, before drawing a blank against Valencia on Matchday 3 and then Bordeaux.

• Osimhen was the first player to score five goals or more in his first five Ligue 1 games since Mario Balotelli hit six in September/October 2016.

• Fellow summer arrivals Benjamin André and Yusuf Yazici scored their first goals for LOSC against Bordeaux and Loïc Rémy supplied the third, his third goal in successive Ligue 1 home matches.

• Timothy Weah has not played since sustaining a leg injury in training on 25 August.

• Renato Sanches (hamstring) has not played since Matchday 2.

• LOSC will mark their 75th anniversary on 30 November with a celebration at the Stade Pierre Mauroy when the club's all-time team, voted for by fans, will be unveiled.