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It’s official: Marcelino García Toral, known to most simply as Marcelino, is out as Valencia manager. The former Villarreal and Sevilla manager had been in charge of los che since 2017 but had been in constant tension with Valencia’s owner, Peter Lim.
The 54-year-old manager won the Copa del Rey last season and led the Valencian club to UEFA Champions League qualification for this term. However after three matches to open the league, Valencia is with four points after three games. Coincidentally, that’s the return Barcelona have gotten from their first three games in La Liga.
Valencia will probably be without a long-term manager when they play against Barça on Sunday. Then, they will have to focus on a difficult Champions League match against Chelsea.
Barcelona, on the other hand, are likely to be missing Lionel Messi as they try to put their league campaign back on track after a lackluster start.