Motherwell’s Álex Gorrin is flying a lonely flag for Spain in the Scottish Premiership.
The midfielder sat down for an interview with AS ahead of Valencia’s Europa League clash against Celtic and the 25-year-old explained why the La Liga outfit are favourites to progress to the next round of the competition.
“Valencia are favourite. Celtic are strong at home, but poor as a visitor and the Mestalla can determine Valencia’s progress,” he said.
Barring the qualifiers, the Bhoys have a poor record in the Europa League away matches as their victory over Rosenborg last November was their first away win in the competition since 2011.
Brendan Rodgers’ men have struggled while on road in the Champions League matches as well, which is why the Motherwell player has backed Los Che to make it to the last 16 of the Europe’s second tier club competition.
Gorrin was asked to analyse Celtic’s weak point and how Valencia can hand Rodgers’ side the blow when the two teams face each other in the first leg of the knockout fixture on Thursday.
“I would say the wings. Valencia can do damage with [Carlos] Soler, [Denis] Cheryshev or [Gonçalo] Guedes. The truth is that I think it’s a perfect match for [Daniel] Parejo and [Geoffrey] Kondogbia,” the midfielder stressed.
“Dani is in a great moment of form and can handle the team anywhere. In addition, if you play Kondogbia, I think you will have work to stop Celtic’s fast counter attacks and those transitions in which they look for their strikers.”
Valencia are currently eighth in La Liga and seem to be getting over their earlier season issues with scoring goals, which isn’t a good development for Celtic.
On Monday, the Spanish club announced that Santi Mina won’t be available for the match in Glasgow, having picked up an ankle strain.
