Valencia CF

Valencia CF players on international duty (February)

2012-03-01T03:59:00.001+01:00

Spain:
Jordi Alba started and played the full 90 minutes for Spain and he had a great match providing 2 assists and never troubled at the back.
Roberto Soldado was introduced at the start of the second half as he came on for Llorente and pretty much immediately scored. He scored a second goal soon after his first as well, got a penalty after being brought down as he found himself alone in front of goal after passing the goalkeeper. He missed the penalty, but went on to redeem himself and scored a hat-trick in the final minutes of the match.
This was an amazing performance by Soldado as he made the case to be included for the Euro 2012.

Brazil:
Diego Alves was called in for Brazil, but sat out their match against Bosnia and Herzegovina. Cesar had a poor match though and Alves chances of becoming the first keeper are very big.
Jonas Goncalves literally was put in the game in the last minute.

Turkey:
Mehmet Topal started and played the full 90 minutes for Turkey and was one of their better players, but unfortunately for him Turkey lost 2-1 to Slovakia.

Portugal:
Ricardo Costa did not feature for Portugal and its highly unlikely if he'll make the squad for Euro 2012.

France:
Adil Rami played the full 90 minutes for France and had a good match with few decent interventions. Good, but not great. He still has a lot to learn and much to improve.

Unai Emery should leave in the summer

2012-02-27T21:35:00.002+01:00

I've been a big proponent and supporter of Unai Emery, but even I can not go on and defend him anymore. Since the defeat from Sevilla at our home ground in the Mestalla and mostly fresh players who were rested against Stoke City it hit me that out team hasn't really improved over the 4 years Emery has been here.

You can read my previous editorial on Unai Emery and find out in more about the details of the sporting and financial situation when he took over and what he's had to deal with to get a better understanding of the pros, but also cons of Emery's reign as Valencia CF coach.

I've been a big supporter because when Emery took over the team was in shambles, barely avoiding relegation under Koeman and most of the veterans on the periphery of the team and bad vibe in the dressing room. I thought that would be it and Valencia CF would become a middle table team and thus a rein will end, but it didn't.

Unai Emery was appointed as coach in the 2008/09 season after successfully leading Almeria to promotion to the Primera League and then finishing 8th in his first year in the top division. After taking over the reigns at Valencia CF, he led the team to a bright start, with a tough middle term battle and a weak finish that put us into sixth position, instead of third or fourth. Still that was a success considering the situation Valencia CF was in, sporting and financially wise, with a bankrupt looming and players not even getting paid for few months.

The next two years he would lead Valencia CF to two consecutive 3rd places finishes amidst loosing some of the best players like David Villa and David Silva and previously Albiol and later Baraja.
What is not so obvious within this is that Villa was towards the end of his sublime form and he literally had one more year in him of the performances we've gotten to know and expect from him and Silva would need a whole year to step up his level and play at the level he is playing right now at Manchester City and with a bit of luck Valencia CF also had some players step up like Juan Mata and Ever Banega. Valencia CF also brought Jeremy Mathieu immediately strengthening the left back spot, something that was weak link in previous years.
So while Emery has been loosing amazing players, he has also been getting new ones, in what one could attribute as luck or even a miracle if you wish and ultimately the team has kept the same level of talent and skill between the changes, what hasn't changed though is the level of play with any and all of the players that have played under Emery, almost always playing at the same level.

The results against teams of equal or slightly less quality is defeating and our results against stronger teams like Barcelona and Real Madrid are even worse. Our play in European competitions is equally defeating with losses against Atletico Madrid in a year when we were realistically stronger, losses against Schalke 04 in a year where they were playing poorly and were in the bottom of the table, but even more defeating are the results in the Spanish cup Copa Del Rey where every time we've faced a little bit of opposition, we've come crumbling down and loosing.

This year I see the same things happening, that has been happening in the past 4 years. Very strong start to the season with few to several unbeaten runs, then loose to a tough opponent, but continue with the momentum even challenging for first place, slowly going out of steam until we hit the winter vacation. Then we start in a slow fashion just as we've finished and sort of frantically adding wet steam to the machine hoping it gets dry fast enough and the machine starts picking steam up and towards the end we have a small push where we gain few places, only for the end to be on a downward spiral, but ultimately finishing strong because we've had weak competition.

So to me it seems that while Unai Emery deserves huge credit and respect for what he's done, the combination of circumstances has allowed him and our team to perform better than it otherwise would and with non existent success in all the other competitions other than La Liga which realistically we can't win, leads me to believe that our team has been performing above the level because of weak competition in Spain and the financial crisis that has engulfed all Spanish teams, but the Spain economy as well.

I think Valencia CF should part ways with Unai Emery this coming summer with both coach and club head held high knowing its on a good line. That said Valencia president Manuel Llorente should only bring in a coach that can improve and build upon Emery's reign and not start over, destroying everything that has been build and achieved over the past 4 years. We need a coach that can sort of take the pieces which are in place already and give them that final polish to be able to reach the next level.
The new coach must also be more experienced and must be proven that he can win and manage a winning team.

Valencia CF 1-2 Sevilla FC - player ratings

2012-02-26T20:44:00.002+01:00

Guaita 6 - Maybe could have done better for the second goal, but not really at fault and dealt with crosses and such well.
Bruno 6.5 (MotM) - Was very good defensively and went forward to a good degree, don't know why he was replaced with Barragan of all people when Valencia were loosing.
Rami 4 (FotM) - Missing for the first and second goal and generally looked shaky all night. Should be replaced with Dealbert for some time.
Ruiz 5.5 - Nowhere to be seen for the second goal, but as always did have some nice tackles and marking.
Alba 6 - Failed to offer much in offense and while not troubled when he was back, it was a limited performance.
Albelda 5 - Early card and that prevented him to be more aggressive. Failed to break up Sevilla's attacks and lost the midfield battle.
Tino 5 - With this kind of performance Parejo may prove himself sooner than he'd hoped. Apart from the goal was almost invisible and unable to move the team forward or retain possession.
Feghuoli 5 - Few bright sparks here and there, but a far cry from a good performance.
Jonas 5 - Few nice touches, few bright moves, but ultimately failed to change the outcome in any way and the game mostly passed by him.
Mathieu 4 - Lost Navas for the first goal and was ineffective in attack.
Soldado 5 - Not enough service. In fact the whole team barely had few chances.
Subs:
Aduriz 5.5 - Tried really hard after he came in and had a try and involved in few actions, but couldn't muster a goal.
Barragan 5.5 - Didn't improve over Bruno and I have no idea why he was put on the field.
Pablo N/A - Not enough time, although he was probably the most active of the rest in his time.

Unai Emery 3 - Rami has been playing rather poorly for at least 2 weeks now and should have noticed that and started Dealbert over him. Tino has been playing very poorly for a month or more and Parejo should have gotten the starting spot in absence of Banega. Played with Alba and Mathieu on the left and while its a good move in some cases, its never been a consistent things and performances have been hit and miss.

My opinion: I would have started with Barragan, Dealbert over Rami, Costa and Alba in the midfield. Rami has been playing poorly the past two or three weeks and should have been left out of the starting eleven.
I would have played with Albelda and Ruiz in midfield. I really feel like Ruiz can fit very well in the midfield with his passing range and play style. If that didn't work, I would have probably made a change at half time and bring Parejo over Ruiz.
On left wing I would have started Piatti and I feel like his pace would have caused Sevilla troubles at the back. The rest would have been the same.

I feel like Mathieu, Tino and Rami have been playing rather poorly over the past few weeks and need to be dropped and told to improve their game.

Valencia CF players called to national squads

2012-02-25T17:37:00.001+01:00

Days ago Vicente Del Bosque released the list of players to feature for Spain and Roberto Soldado was on that list on the place of Frenando Torres. Jordi Alba was also called in and continues to steadily feature for Spain, but this makes him more and more close to Barcelona as well.

Adil Rami was also called in for France. Jeremy Mathiey did not found his name on the list, as Patrice Evra and Eric Abidal both returned to occupy the left back position.

Ricardo Costa got a call for the Portugeese national team once again, he has been on and off the Portugal national team for the past 2 years.

Mehmet Topal has been called for Turkey national squad for their friendly match against Slovakia.

Jonas and Diego Alves both got called back to the Brazilian team and it seems both are becoming regulars, especially Diego Alves who with the fall of Inter's goalkeeper Julio Cesar has got the opportunity to become Brazil's next starter goalkeeper.

Hedwiges Maduro is still not fit, but he is likely to get a call anyways for Holland, while Victor Ruiz who's shown some good plays is still on the waiting line for Spain, even though Albiol has been removed now and Spain continue to have defensive problems.

Valencia CF 1-0 Stoke City - player ratings

2012-02-24T19:32:00.000+01:00

Guaita 6 - Had two wonderful saves to deny Stoke and was commanding in the air.
Bruno 6.5 - Bruno has surprised me with his performances against Stoke. Seems like he doesn't trouble with strong and fast players running at him and his weakness is technically good players.
Rami 6 - Good game by Rami, was good in the air and confident when dealing with the opposition.
Dealbert 6 - Keeps surprising me, yet another good performance, with only one early mistake and was rock solid after.
Alba 5.5 - His size really was important here as he got out jumped every time and got beaten a few times. Wasn't particularly effective going forward either.
Topal 6.5 - Good game by the Turk, made some good defensive tackles and good interceptions in the penalty area and spread the ball with effective simple and short passes.
Parejo 6 - Finally a good match by Parejo, albeit not impressive. He retained possession well and his passes were mostly accurate and and positive.
Pablo 6.5 (MotM) - Good game by Pablo who was really in his element tonight. Provided the assist to the goal, after a fine dribble to leave his defender behind.
Jonas 6 - Scored the goal and was involved in a lot of the attacks, fell back and helped out in midfield as well.
Piatti 5 - Very active on the left, but he really seems to find his stride on the right. So far whenever he has played left has been decent, but not very efficient, but when he's played right on the wing, has been very effective.
Aduriz 5 - Got the spot instead of Soldado, but wasn't convincing. His movement was good and was a big presence with his height in Stoke's penalty area, but failed to get in dangerous shooting positions.
Subs:
Feghuoli 5 - Didn't show very much in his 20 minutes. Lost couple balls and his crosses were fail.
Soldado 4.5 - Same as Feghuoli and didn't show much. Had one great chance after he found himself alone in front of the goalkeeper, but shot straight at Thomas Sorensen.

FC Barcelona 5-1 Valencia CF - Player Ratings

2012-02-20T11:15:00.001+01:00

Diego 5.5 - At fault for the second goal. Made several great saves after, but when you are responsible for the opposition leading after such a goal, it doesn't matter. He also received 4 more.
Miguel 6 - Great start to the match, was very firm in defense and combining well with Feghuoli, but then got injured.
Rami 0 - Absolute disaster. He was Dealbert at his worst minus 100 times. Horrendous performance tonight.
Ruiz 4 - Did better than Rami, but that doesn't say much. To his defense he was let down by Mathieu time and time again and was forced most of the time to be a left back as well.
Mathieu 3.5 - Mathieu's worse performance. I don't know what his problem was, but he just didn't run, didn't block, just mindlessly stood in defense.
Albelda 5.5 - Did what he could. It was another reliable and industrial performance, but wasn't at his best as he received a yellow card very early in the match and under pressure for red.
Tino 4 - Completely overrun in the midfield and this his his straight 3rd or 4th game where he has been sub-par, in this one Barcelona danced around him.
Feghuoli 6.5 - Had a good game, amidst a poor team performance, had several runs and some good passes, but couldn't do it alone.
Jonas 5.5 - Two amazing passes and very calm on the ball, but failed to help out the midfield or do much more than few passes.
Piatti 6 - Great run to score the first goal, tried really hard thought and helped in defense, but just didn't happen.
Soldado 5 - Completely isolated at front, only received 1 useful ball in the whole game. No service today at all.
Subs:
Ricardo Costa 4 - Bad performance, was beaten over and over again and with the incompetent Rami made a mess out of the game at the back.
Alba 5.5 - Improved upon Mathieu in defense and had one good run after he came on, but the team was not up to it and so he couldn't really do much.
Topal N/A - Not enough time

FC Barcelona vs Valencia CF - Match Preview

2012-02-18T16:31:00.002+01:00

FC Barcelona vs Valencia CF

Stadium: Camp Nou
18th, February, 2012; 21:30CET
24th matchday, La Liga
Expected Attendance: 90.000

Coaches: Josep Guardiola and Unai Emery

Its that time again in the new season where we face the title defenders and not so favorites for winning it again right now, as Real Madrid is leading the table by a big margin. The matches between Valencia CF and FC Barcelona have always been very entertaining and have attracted huge crowds and a lot of viewership not only in Spain, but all over the world. No doubt that is going to be the case this time around as well, with millions of people all over the world watching this match.

No doubt this is going to be an interesting clash once again and an entertaining game and in a lot of ways its a measurement for Spanish clubs in recent years to assess their strengths against the untouchable Barcelona. This time no different and FC Barcelona are the huge favorites, especially after winning over Valencia CF just a week ago in the Copa Del Rey. And while the games have mostly been fairly equal result wise with 2 draws and one not so big loss, Barcelona has always looked the one more likely to win and has been the better side overall.

Valencia CF gets 40 million TV rights money, Barcelona gets 140 million TV rights money. Valencia champions league qualification is considered a success, while for Barca winning only La Liga is somewhat of a disappointment.
The contrast between these two clubs is huge, especially in recent years, but when these two sides meet on the grass what matters is only the performance on the pitch and nothing else.

Head to Head

Sep 21, 2011 Valencia CF 2 : 2 FC Barcelona Primera Division
Mar 02, 2011 Valencia CF 0 : 1 FC Barcelona Primera Division
Oct 16, 2010 FC Barcelona 2 : 1 Valencia CF Primera Division
Mar 14, 2010 FC Barcelona 3 : 0 Valencia CF Primera Division
Oct 17, 2009 Valencia CF 0 : 0 FC Barcelona Primera Division
Apr 25, 2009 Valencia CF 2 : 2 FC Barcelona Primera Division
Dec 06, 2008 FC Barcelona 4 : 0 Valencia CF Primera Division

FC Barcelona has been in a somewhat of a semi-crisis with a loss to Osasuna just last weekend when they really needed a win to catch up to Real Madrid and two games before that only managed a draw with Villarreal who were still in a bad form and just changed coaches just two weeks prior.
Even though they've been in a rather 'poor' form in La Liga, they've been in great form in other competitions like the Copa Del Rey where they beat Valencia CF and they just beat Bayer Leverkusen away from home 3-1 in the Champions League.

Last year the most trouble that Barcelona had was against Valencia CF in both the matches and Valencia CF was the best and only team to take the game to Barcelona and have as much as 49% possession. Valencia CF also scored first in the second match and had several more opportunities to increase their lead, but just didn't have enough luck. In the second half though Barcelona pressed and managed to get more of the possession and were the more dangerous team and ultimately scored two goals and won.
This season its been a similar case with the first match being rather equal in the first half with Valencia CF even more dangerous towards goal, in which Soldado missed a sitter of a chance to give us basically the win. Then in the second half Barcelona came back and almost won, but Valencia CF barely held to the 2-2 draw. Possession was 44%-56% with Barcelona just slightly in the lead there.

Iniesta has returned from injury and Xavi for the most part has been rested in easier games and will be fully fresh for this match. Of course the most dangerous man for FC Barcelona is Lionel Messi, who is especially dangerous against Valencia and has been responsible for Barcelona having better results against Valencia singlehandedly. Alexis Sancehz has also been accustomed to life and play at Barcelona and has excelled in recent time, scoring important goals for Barcelona.

Barcelona squad: to be announced...

Valencia CF is coming to this match after a big victory against Sporting Gijon in La Liga and a good result over Stoke City at an away match in the Europa League. Valencia CF is also currently in 3rd place, only 8 points behind 2nd placed Barcelona.

The biggest surprise comes from the obvious absence of Ever Banega for this match. Superdeporte reports that he has some sort of knee problem, but they are getting their info from official channels on this one and we know this can be a lie, although at this point I don't think it is and don't see it as a problem between Banega and Emery.

With Albelda getting a contract extension for one more season and Topal having a good games after quite a while, we have things to be optimistic about going into this game. Its likely to be a very tough game, especially at Camp Nou which has always been a tough venue for Valencia CF.

Valencia CF squad:

Goalkeepers: Diego Alves, Guaita.
Defenders: Miguel, Bruno, Ruiz, Dealbert, Ricardo Costa, Rami, Alba, Mathieu.
Midfielders: Topal, Albelda, Feghouli, T. Costa, D. Parejo, Pablo, Piatti, Bernat.
Attackers: Jonas, Aduriz, Soldado.

Technical Details FC Barcelona (probable setups):
Formation: 4-3-3
Line-up: Valdes; Puyol, Mascherano, Pique, Abidal; Xavi, Busquets, Cesc; Thiago, Messi, Alexis.
Tactics: High defensive line, interchangeable right wing, bore VCF to death with endless circle passes that pose no danger and when all fell asleep score a goal.

Technical Details Valencia CF (probable setups):
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Alves; Miguel, Rami, Ruiz, Mathieu; Albelda, Tino; Feghuoli Jonas, Piatti; Soldado.
Tactics: Low defensive line, own half pressure, double left side cover, high frequency wing attacks, counter attacks, mostly long passing.

Result Prediction:
Barcelona 2-0 Valencia CF
Barcelona already beat Valencia 2-1 at home in the Copa Del Rey match and this time its going to be the same, with the only difference that Valencia is not going to score.

David Albelda contract extended, Mathieu and Alba next

2012-02-18T11:27:00.001+01:00

David Albelda extended his contract just before the match with Stoke City and will stay at Valencia CF for one more year. Albelda has been very consistent this year and overtook Topal as a starter in the team and thus earned himself a new contract.

He is also Valencia's captain and oldest member of the club and most standing, having played at Valencia for 15 years.

Valencia CF president Manuel Llorente said that the team needs Albelda as he brings so much to the team and more recently he's said that they are going to extend the contract with Jeremy Mathieu very soon and how they have an agreement with Mathieu. He also said Jordi Alba is also likely to extend his contract with Valencia.

Valencia CF wallpapers batch 4

2012-02-17T13:57:00.001+01:00

Hi there. Valencia CF wallpapers batch 4 is here. Its been a while, but I have few more wallpapers to release now.

If you want to contribute with a wallpaper send it to me at slickr12345(at)yahoo(dot)com

Stoke City 0-1 Valencia CF - Match Report

2012-02-16T23:25:00.005+01:00

Stoke City 0-1 Valencia CF

possession:

Attempts on target: 2-2

Attempts off target: 3-7

fouls: 13-11

Match started with Stoke City pressuring hard and forcing Valencia CF to loose the ball fast in the middle and then quickly try to cross the ball to Peter Crouch and hoping he would score with a header.

Stoke City was more dangerous in the first 15 minutes and controlled the tempo of the match and in those 15 minutes had few good crosses and throw-ins, but once the starting energy wore off Valencia CF began to control more of the ball and keep possession.

21st minute Jonas with a chance after good one-two play with Piatti, but his shot goes straight to Stoke City's goalkeeper.
Few minutes later Jonas and Piatti with a good combination once again, with Piatti shot being blocked, but winning a corner kick.

After some midfield battle and back and forward Valencia CF would start threatning Stoke City goal a lot more seriously and would have few chances and tries on goal and then in the 36th minute Topal releases a bomb, a missile towards Stoke's goal and the goalkeeper has no chance to stop it and Topal scores a goal, giving Valencia CF the lead.

38th minute Tino Costa has a shot towards goal, perhaps influenced by Topal, but his shot goes wide. Just a minute later Stoke would have their chance through Crouch who hits a volley, but it goes wide.

In the last seconds of the first half Feghuoli with some dribbles in Stoke's penalty area, but he does too much and ultimately looses the ball and wastes a good opportunity.

Second half started with Stoke City the better team with more of the ball control and more of the initiative, while Valencia CF were the ones trying to catch Stoke on the counter attack.

For the first 20 minutes it was pretty much all Stoke City with a lot of tries through crosses and long balls, but Valencia's defense would stood firm.

70th minute starts a counter attack, passes to Piatti and this one to Feghuoli who's shot hist the post.
Just few minutes later chance for Stoke City after a corner kick, but shot goes above the goal.

93rd minute free kick for Valencia just outside the penalty area on the right side with Tino Costa taking it, but his shot is too powerful going wide and above goal.

Final time and Valencia CF wins 1-0 over Stoke City and going into the second leg with a clear advantage.

Line-ups:
Stoke City (0): Begovic, Huth, Shawcross, Wilkinson, Wilson(69, Shotton), Pennant, Delap, Etherington, Palacios(53, Whitehead), Walters, Crouch(69, Jerome)
Valencia CF (1): Guaita; Bruno(81, Miguel), Rami, Dealbert, Mathieu; Topal, Tino; Feghuoli, Jonas, Piatti(88, Bernat); Aduriz(79, Soldado).

Player Ratings:
Guaita 6.5 - Very confident dealing with Stoke's dangerous crosses, throw-ins and corners and did his job well.
Bruno 5.5 - Good in defense and helped out well enough in attack, but got tired towards the end and lustfully replaced with Miguel.
Rami 6.5 - Good positioning and very strong in the air, but once and a while has this crazy runs and dribbles and that needs to stop.
Dealbert 6.5 - Great performance from Dealbert who was in charge of subduing Crouch and did a great job at it.
Mathieu 6 - Good defensively and made some nice and clean tackles. Did well going forward as well.
Topal 7 - Good game by Topal who had some key defensive interventions and scored the only goal with a magnificent shot.
Tino 5.5 - Started well and very involved in the second part of the first half, but was gone in the second half and did very little.
Feghuoli 6 - Had some nice chances and did decently to find himself in such positions, but really made the wrong decisions in what to do when he got in dangerous positions.
Jonas 6.5 - Great match by Jonas who combined really well tonight with Piatti to cause Stoke all sorts of problems.
Piatti 7 (MotM) - Man of the match performance and was a thorn for Stoke's side, causing them all sorts of problems and combining really well with Jonas for come good actions.
Aduriz 5 - Not too involved and failed to get into dangerous positions.
Subs:
Soldado N/A - Not enough time

Miguel N/A - Not enough time

Bernat N/A - Not enough time

Stoke City vs Valencia CF - Match Preview

2012-02-16T08:34:00.002+01:00

Stoke City vs Valencia CF

Stadium: Britannia Stadium
16th, February, 2012; 21:05CET
R32, 1st leg, Europa League
Expected Attendance: 27.700

Coaches: Tony Pulis and Unai Emery

Valencia CF founds itself in the Europa League instead of the Champions League after failing to qualify by drawing the first match with Genk and then later also loosing to Bayern Leverkusen 2-1. In the last match with Chelsea there were hopes we'd be able to basically draw and move on, especially since Chelsea was in bad form at the time, but once again we showed our second class and lost 3-0.

Now we face English side Stoke City in what is going to be an interesting match and in which match Valencia CF needs to show its strength and character and be able to win at least minimally.

Stoke City on the other hand fought their way to the round 32 in the Europa League from the start, starting with the third qualifying round beating Hajduk Split 1-0 in the first leg and then beating them 1-0 once again in the second leg for an aggregate win of 2-0.

In the play-offs Stoke City beat Thun 5-1 on aggregate showing its class against the weaker sides.

In the group stage they finished second in their group behind Besiktas with 11 points to Beshiktas 12 leaving Dynamo Kiev and Maccabi Tel-Aviv behind.

Now Stoke's biggest challenge yet in the round of 32 is Valencia CF and as such they are going to be extremely motivated and playing 120% percent, enthusiastic to show their crowd they can compete with Spain's third best club.

Right now Stoke City are thirteen in the Premier League table with 30 points, safe from relegation, but way off from any top 6 finish. Their best striker is Peter Crouch with 6 goals and he is likely to cause some trouble for our defense with his 2 meters height. They also have Jermaine Pennant as someone more known in their squad and he is with 3 assists.

Stoke City haven't won in 5 matched domestically, loosing four and drawing 1 of their last five matches, though two of those opponents have been Manchester United and Liverpool, but its still a bit of a bummer, although they haven't really been winning much overall as they are 13th place on the table.
They've scored a total of 24 goals in the Premier League and conceded 38 goals and are with pretty much same record at home and away.

Stoke City squad: to be announced...

Valencia CF on the other hand is coming to the Europa League after failing to qualify for the round of 16 in the Champions League by finishing 3rd place behind Bayer Levernusen and FC Chelsea. I guess David Albelda is happy right now as he called this competition as good and that we have better chances of winning this competition, but I beg to differ with teams like Macnehster City, Manchester United, Udinese, Atletico Madrid and even Schalke 04 who beat us last season in the round of 16 in the Champions League.

Valencia CF also lost in the Copa Del Rey recently to Barcelona and although there is no shame in loosing to Barcelona, its still a bad feeling to loose and certainly in the poor way we played for the second leg didn't help things.

In the domestic league Valencia CF is doing much better with pretty safe 3rd place right now and 8 points away from 3rd and 4th places Levante and Espanyol, though it is only this last week that we broke a winless streak of 5 matches.

Against Stoke City our biggest problem would be Peter Crouch with his 2.1 meters height and the fact that English players have more strength and play a more physical game. While Valencia CF is no Barcelona and we have powerful players like Rami, Topal and Aduriz, most are still weaker like Alba, Mathieu, Pablo, Piatti, etc...

Valencia CF squad:

Goalkeepers: Alves, Guaita, Adrián.
Defenders: Miguel, Bruno, Rami, Dealbert, Víctor Ruiz, Mathieu.
Midfielders: Albelda, Topal, Tino Costa, Éver, Bernat, Pablo Hernández, Feghouli, Piatti.
Forwards: Jonas, Aduriz, Soldado.

Technical Details Valencia CF (probable setups)
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Diego; Miguel, Rami, Dealbert, Alba; Banega, Albelda; Feghuoli, Jonas, Piatti; Soldado.
Tactics: Medium defensive line, mid field pressure, positional changes from the wingers, 3 way attacks, mostly short passing.

Result Prediction:
Stoke City 1-1 Valencia CF
Stoke City are not some big club and technically are a lot weaker, but what they lack in technique they add up with strength and at home they are going to be a problematic opponent. I can already see Peter Crouch scoring a goal against Alba or Ruiz or Miguel so one goal for them is a certain, with Valencia CF using Soldado's speed to score as well. Ultimatelly I see the match finishing level with one goal a piece.

Want to chat while watching VCF vs Stoke?

2012-02-15T12:28:00.002+01:00

Join us at the forum which now also has a new domain name www.valenciacf.me

Also Stoke City proclaimed that Valencia CF is not weaker than Barcelona and Real Madrid and so they are expecting a lot from Valencia, but I think they might have missed the year. Its not 2003, certainly not 1999.

Seems Benitez also told them few stories about VCF, maybe from his time to scare them. Either ways its going to be a fun match, especially the English commentary if I can find one with good quality, otherwise will watch it on TV.

Angel Dealbert offered new contract by Valencia CF

2012-02-14T05:13:00.000+01:00

Angel Dealbert revealed that he's been offered new contract by Valencia CF, but he hasn't signed it yet and is going to wait till the summer to sign it. He probably hopes there to be some interest for him to be able to negotiate for a bigger salary, although he said he would like to stay at Valencia CF and finish his career here.

He has been very humble and hasn't caused any troubles for not being a regular, which is not what you can say for Ricardo Costa for example.

I'd certainly like to see him stay for few more years, plus he has been actually very good in his appearances and done a good job defending and in my ratings has been actually better than Ricardo Costa or David Navarro or Stankevicious or even Rami and Ruiz if we compare to his score last year.

Valencia CF vs Sporting Gijon - Match Preview

2012-02-12T05:44:00.003+01:00

Valencia CF vs Sporting Gijon

Stadium: Mestalla
12th, February, 2012; 18:00CET
23rd matchday, La Liga
Expected Attendance: 35.000

Coaches: Unai Emery and Iñaki Tejada

After a disappointing loss from FC Barcelona at the Copa Del Rey, Valencia CF will once again focus on the primera league and try to get its first win in 5 matches. With Atletico Madrid and Atletico Bilbao drawing and loosing respectively Valencia CF has a chance to get away from them and increase the lead to a comfortable 9 points lead over Atletico Madrid.

Levante is also playing against Real Madrid so its safe to say that if Valencia CF wins it will increase its ldead over Levante to 8 points.

Valencia CF has been in a slump the last month or so in La Liga and has gone 5 matches without winning, 4 of those matches drawing and loosing to Real Sociedad. This kind of performance is not surprising, as almost every year with Emery now he gets similar results with Valencia. We always seem to slump after returning from the short winter break.

Will today's match again Sporting Gijon be the turning point or will we continue on this bad run of results. Certainly this is the match we must win, before the alarm bells start ringing. The fact that Valencia doesn't have tough opposition this season is benefiting us, since we are not under pressure to start getting results, but this is very important match and one we must win.

Unai Emery has brought 18 players with him, with Ruiz injured and Pablo as Emery says left to recover further from his injury, after a bleak performance in the last La Liga match.

Valencia CF squad:

Goalkeepers: Alves and Guaita.
Defenders: Miguel, Barragán, Rami, Dealbert, Jordi Alba.
Midfielders: Mathieu, Albelda, Topal, Tino Costa, Éver, Bernat, Feghouli, Piatti.
Forwards: Jonas, Aduriz, Soldad.

Sporting Gijon is in the relegation zone with only 19 points, only less than Zaragoza and with Villarreal improving under their new coach its going to likely be a tough season for them with every match a battle to avoid relegation.

In the last 5 matches Sporting Gijon have won once, draw once and lost 3 times. They are also the worst team defensively with a staggering 39 goals conceded and only 20 goals scored which while not worst, its pretty low.

David Barral is their most proficient goal scorer with 7 goals scored so far which accounts for 1/3 of their overall goals scored.

Technical Details Valencia CF (probable setups)
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Diego; Barragan, Rami, Dealbert, Alba; Tino, Albelda; Piatti, Jonas, Bernat; Soldado.
Tactics: Medium defensive line, all round pressure, positional changes from the wingers, 3 way attacks, mixed passing.

Result Prediction:

Valencia CF 2-0 Sporting Gijon

With no more Copa Del Rey to defocus the players and no more room for mistakes the team should be able to beat Sporting Gijon, especially since we are playing on home ground.

Valencia CF interested in Jonathan Viera

2012-02-11T06:27:00.002+01:00

Valencia CF technical director Braulio Vazquez admits interest in Jonathan Viera, Las Palmas striker. Speaking to the newspaper La Provincia he said that Valencia CF is interested in Viera and that Valencia CF has been following him and analyzing his play and he likes what he's seen. He announced to make a move in the summer to try and sign him.

With a clause of six million euros, the fact is that Viera contract with the Las Palmas ends in June 2013 so they are going to be forced to sell the player, as the player has announced he wants to move.

Report have it that Jonathan Viera has reached a verbal agreement with Valencia, so its likely in that circumstance Valencia CF to be able to sign him in the summer without too much trouble from other teams like Atletico Madrid, Napoli and Malaga.

Join me to a new forum and lets get the discussion going

2012-02-10T07:13:00.000+01:00

Hi there. I've changed my forum link to a new forum one managed by Gavin, Rezaur and now me. There are already more than dozen people there actively discussing and I hope to see all of you there. Its obviously an English language forum.

You can go on there immediately and engage in discussion right now even without registration, but preferably you would want to register if the rules change in the future.

http://valenciacflosche.proboards.com/

Valencia CF 19th richest football club in 2010/11

2012-02-10T01:19:00.000+01:00

Deloitte released their football money league results and Valencia CF is 19th on the list of the most richest clubs in 2010/11.

Real Madrid head the Money League for the seventh successive year and require one more year in top position in order to match the dominance of Manchester United’s during the first eight years of the Money League. FC Barcelona complete a Spanish one-two for the third successive year, whilst the top six positions remain unchanged.

German club Schalke’s run to the semi-finals of the Champions League has allowed the club to claim a top ten position for the first time, climbing six places. We expect Manchester City to claim a top ten position in the next edition of the Money League. England retains the largest representation from any single country with six clubs, with the other 14 clubs from the other ‘big five’ European leagues. There are three new entries into this year’s top 20 in Borussia Dortmund, Valencia and Napoli.

2010/11 Revenue (€m)
1 Real Madrid 479.5
2 FC Barcelona 450.7
3 Manchester United 367
4 Bayern Munich 321.4
7 AC Milan 235.1
8 Internazionale 211.4
9 Liverpool 203.3
10 Schalke 04 202.4
11 Tottenham Hotspur 181
12 Manchester City 169.6
13 Juventus 153.9
14 Olympique de Marseille 150.4
15 AS Roma 143.5
16 Borussia Dortmund 138.5
17 Olympique Lyonnais 132.8
18 Hamburger SV 128.8
19 Valencia 116.8
20 Napoli 114.9

FC Barcelona 2-0 Valencia CF Match Report

2012-02-08T23:09:00.000+01:00

FC Barcelona 2-0 Valencia CF

Possesion: 66%-34%

Fouls: 12-22

Shots: 14-4

The match started fairly calmly with both sides trying to establish control in midfield with Valencia CF being more successful in the early stages and pressuring Barcelona aggressively and deep in their territory and this would have an effect and Barcelona players would commit quite a few errors.

First chance was for Valencia in the 12th minute with Mathieu's great through ball to Feghuoli who was basically alone on goal, but his shot was inaccurate.

15h minute counter chance for Barcelona and their actual first chance and Fabregas converts it into goal after poor marking by Miguel and an even poorer reaction and positioning by Diego Alves.

18th minute a huge blunder by Rami who gives the ball to Messi, trying to pass to Banega, Messi sprints towards the goal and shoots, but Alves was alert and saves.

Good save by Digeo once again in the 25th minute after a shot by Messi after the free kick. Minutes later Barcelona would start pushing hard on goal and would get their chance in the 31st minute with Diego clearing the ball short to Ruiz and this one fails to receive the ball properly and ends up giving it to Fabregas or Messi, but luckily the shot is saved by Diego yet again.

36th minute one more chance for Fabregas after Mathieu fails to get the ball off of him in some very poor marking, but once again this shot was saved by Diego.

Valencia would try to get something going and in the 39th minute it would come close to Pinto's goal, but Jonas shot is blocked.

Ultimately the first half was rather poor and we are lucky the result is still only 1-0 for Barcelona after their several chances to score.

Second half started and a quick chance for Alba as he gets to a pass from Jonas and in front of goal, but Pinto reacts fast and saves.

53th minute Chance for Messi as he escapes Ramim but Ruiz is close and blocks with a sliding challenge. Just a minute later Messi goes past Jonas, Albelda and Ruiz and manages to shoot at goal, but Diego saves.

58th minute chance for Valencia CF as Aritz Aduriz finds himself in decent position and Pinto is out of goal, but Aduriz fails fails to score as Mascherano gets to the ball and heads it out.

62nd minute Ruiz gets the ball kicked off his legs by Alexis and the ball finds its way to Messi whonow has huge chance, but Diego or Ruiz just manage to get to him and get the ball to go just wide and into corner.

72th minute Mathieu tries to pass to the lone Aduriz after a counter attack, but only gets a corner. From the corner Jonas manages a volley, but Pinto saves.

74th minute good chance for Barcelona, but Miguel is there and blocks.

79th minute good chance for Aduriz , but he slips just as he is to shoot and ruins his chance.

Minute later Barcelona make it 2-0 after a quick counter attack in which 3 Barca players find themselves against 2 Valencia defenders and Xavi scores while being all alone and unchallenged by anyone.

From there the match was basically over and Barcelona had few more tries and chances, but the match ended 2-0 for Barcelona after a deserved victory in which Valencia CF had very little chances of even drawing and not to mention winning.

Player Ratings:

Diego (MotM) 7.5 - Man of the match even though the saves weren't that hard to make, but he did have quite a lot of them so he gets a good score and man of the match.

Miguel 5 - Dealt with most of what came from Cuenca and Abidal and not overly troubled.

Rami 4 - Terrible night from the Frenchmen as he made few huge blunders and only gets a reasonable 4 because he actually did make few decent tackles and blocks.

Ruiz 4 - Same as Rami. Was better in the first half, but as if not to let Rami look bad did the same blunders Rami did in the first half.

Alba 6.5 - Actually good performance on an individual level and had few good runs forward that if he had a little bit more luck could have converted.

Albelda 6 - Good match from the veteran and steady as always and simple in his play.

Banega 5 - Was overrun in midfield and had no chance against Xavi and Thiago. Some cheap and inaccurate passes as well.

Feghuoli 5 - Started well and was involved in some attacks, but got himself taken out with two yellows after a stupid and needless foul on Puyol in Barcelona's half.

Jonas 5.5 - Not too involved and didn't drop deeper to try and help the midfield. Had two good plays with a pass to Alba and a good velley shot, but he was too invisible to get a better score.

Mathieu 5 - Very ineffective in attack as he was by formation the more forward of him and Alba, but failed to do anything of note and wasn't very effective in defense as well.

Aduriz 5.5 - Had few decent chances, but he failed to convert them reacting rather poorly in all of them. Got in good positions though, but it just didn't go his way.

Subs:

Tino 5 - Did not offer anything over Banega and was as isolated and ineffective as Banega before him.

Piatti 5 - Could not make any difference.

Parejo N/A - not enough time.

Valencia needs a win in La Liga

2012-02-06T21:34:00.003+01:00

While I'm pleased with the draw with Atletico Madrid and I think that is the fairest result by all measurements I feel like Valencia CF has overall slipped in the domestic league with 4 draws and 1 loss in the last 5 matches. That is basically 11 points lost and considering we drew 3 of these matches in the last minute practically it really increases the pain.

Part of this is probably the Copa Del Rey as Valencia CF has really been focusing on going further and with now Barcelona and previously Levante it probably did have an effect of the overall performance, but since Emery has been rotating the players it shouldn't have affected us so much.

Right now though first things first we need to go and win against Barcelona and no less at the Camp Nou, but the fact that we've drawn with Barcelona twice this season shows that we can compete with them and our bigger squad should theoretically give us a bit of an advantage, although I really doubt how much real the freshness effect is and how really tired players are.

But no matter if we win or loose at Camp Nou we must prioritize the domestic league as top priority and 3rd place is a must, especially after such poor season start from all Valencia CF competitors.

Villarreal, Sevilla, Atletico Bilbao and for much of the start Atletico Madrid have all been poor, with Malaga not really being a direct competitor just as I've actually predicted it won't and said it will finish around 6th and now it seems increasingly likely that way, so the biggest competition we've had is from Levante another Valencia based club, which I guess is good.

But thing is Atletico Madrid are catching up really fast and just as I've predicted again accurately before the season began that Atletico Madrid have a very strong squad, realistically stronger than Valencia squad and if things go their way will be our main competitor and hold and behold with the change of coach that is happening right now.

Surprisingly though even I couldn't predict the disaster that is going to turn out Villarreal and their miserable season, especially since their current squad is practically the same from a season ago minus Cazorla.

So yeah right now the biggest worry I have is Atletico Madrid as I feel can challenge our 3rd place which up until now was pretty safe and even Emery admitted yesterday that after the last draw 3rd place is no longer safe and it will be a challenge to keep it.

What I'm enthusiastic about is the fact that even without Mata and with some big injuries and quite a fewer overall players than last season we are doing as well as last season and this time the Europa League might even turn out to be a blessing in disguise if we can reach the latter stages of it like the semi final or even final and dare I say win.

But on to another topic I want to say that I was right yet again about Parejo and wrote that it would be best for him to leave as he is not combining with the team and the fact that his character is standing in the way is an even bigger reason for him to have left. Now how was I right again? Well that is because first my rating of players is based in fact and statistics and not feel. I agree it has a lot of feel and subjectivity in it, but in all that it has an actual formula of how it works.

First off all the players start off with a score of 5 and at the end of the match I calculate with the points they lost or received and that creates the final score in the majority of cases.
For every goal, assist, penalty save and major block or perfect offside trap the player/s in question receive +1 point.
For every positive action in the game, say good through pass creating a chance or distributing the ball precisely in a positive way the player/s gets 0.5 points.
For every negative action like giving the ball few too many times, failed shots or blocks the player/s gets -0.5 points.
For major mistakes like giving/loosing the ball away close to own goal or in very dangerous position or a 5 meter clear goal miss or things of that nature player/s gets -1 points.

So ultimately I end up giving each player from 3-4 points up to 10-12 depending on his involvement.

Example: I give Albelda 4 0.5 points for positive actions and 1 negative 0.5 point so that is basically 2-0.5=1.5. So 5 starting point + 1.5=6.5 final rating.

Now every once and a while I'd increase or decrease the rating based on pure feel about how they played, but it mostly has some science behind it.

Second thing was the team play analysis. Sometimes you can have the best player, yet he not going to play well for example Messi for most of his Argentina performances. You got to see how he fits with other players, which role suits him and does not suit him and just the general feel of the game and how the player is part of it.

The fact that he has done pretty bad in both and coupled with his negative attitude about the situation was enough for me to write him off. And he is not going to improve this season. If we don't sell him next season and he also decides to stay and try and fight for a spot from the ground up and has a really good summer he may become a valuable asset to our team, but that is obviously a long shot.

/End discussion-rant.

Atletico Madrid 0-0 Valencia CF match report

2012-02-06T00:27:00.002+01:00

Atletico Madrid 0-0 Valencia CF

Possesion: 48%-52%

Fouls: 22-21

Atletico Madrid and Valencia CF shared the spoils tonight and ended up both getting a point with a goalless draw. The match itself was interesting, although it didn't have many chances on both sides. Most of the play was in midfield and both teams were evenly matched. Both team would have good chances to score with both sides unable to convert their chances into goals.

Atletico Madrid would have the more direct chances including one towards the end and then one went through Rami legs, but deflected to a corner.

With so little chances most of the battle was in the midfield and both teams were at the same level with pretty much equal ball possession, with the latest statistic having Valencia 52% of the ball control vs the 48% for Atletico Madrid.

First chance would come for Atletico in the 8th minute with a shot by Arda, but Diego Alves saved the goal without too much trouble.

Then in the 28th minute Valencia had a chance through Piatti, who's shot was saved by Atletico goalkeeper.

The other interesting thing was when Diego gave Diego Godin a KO trying to punch the ball and hit Godin with his elbow.

79th minute Diego would fire a shot, but Diego saves again no big deal and then in the 88th minute a huge chance for Atletico Madrid after Rami made a big blunder and miss-kicked the ball, but luckilly nothing came out of it as Diego once again claimed the ball.

Player Ratings:
Diego 6.5 - Assured performance and when called upon made the saves.
Miguel 4.5 - Largely anonymous performance with few lapses of concentration.
Rami 5.5 - Started well making several interceptions and ruined a good performance with his late game mistake.
Ruiz 5 - Started shakier of the defensive duo, but improved as the game wore on and made few good blocks.
Alba 6 - Had a good defensive display and more offensive than Mathieu at times on the side there.
Albelda 6.5 - Great performance from the veteran who made some key interceptions and fouls at key moments to stem the Atletico Madrid attacks.
Tino 5 - Largely anonymous performance with more defensive play and wasn't very influential in midfield as the midfield was constantly bypassed from defense to offense.
Pablo 4 - One of those really bad performances where he did not do enough and what he did was all bad or didn't work.
Piatti 5.5 - Drifted on the left side and unable to link up play forward, but was active in trying and has few decent moments.
Mathieu 5.5 - Some good and some bad moments for Mathieu and while the left wing was a lot more dangerous than the right it doesn't say much as both Miguel and Pablo were bad tonight. Had few defensive lapses later in the match.
Soldado 5.5 - Did run channels and tried to position himself in a good position, but he lacked service tonight.
Subs:
Aduriz 5.5 - Did well after coming off for Soldado and found himself in few decent positions, but as Soldado really lacked service.
Jonas 5 - Did not have enough time and the match largely passed by him.
Bernat N/A - Not enough time.

Official: Jinko new Valencia CF shirt sponsor

2012-01-31T18:55:00.001+01:00

Chineese energy company Jinko is Valencia CF new general sponsor. Today was the official presentation of the sponsor with the new shirts with the Jinko logo on them.

Right now it seems as if the contract is only on 6 months and worth 2 million euros. Compared to Real Madrid and Barcelona the shirt sponsor for Valencia CF is rather modest, but still its better than nothing. Every last bit of money helps.

Racing Santander 2-2 Valencia CF - Match Report

2012-01-30T18:09:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was a bad day for Valencia CF as the team is now on its 3rd draw and one loss three weeks in a row. The match against Racing was very important for Valencia CF to get back on the winning track and Racing represented a good opportunity as even though their last 5-6 matches have been decent their attack was poor and defense average and in the bottom of the table.

The match started really weird with the midfield duo of Ever Banega and Tino Costa clearly not working properly. Racing also came very early to a lead through Munitis who provided the assist and Adrian who scored.

Then Emery took off Banega in the 30 minutes with now it seems a knee injury. Topal came on to replace Banega. With one defensive midfielder now Valencia CF actually started playing better and Tino had a good match dictating play and keeping possession for Valencia CF.

First half didn't have many chances, except in the 21th minute when Jonas shot from up close, but only at the goalkeeper.

The second half was quite uneventful as well and it wasn't until Aduriz came in that Valencia actually managed to score with one of their little chances. It was Aduriz after a corner kick by Tino Costa in the 66th minute.

Then in the 79th minute Aduriz would score again this time with his header after a powerful shot by Ricardo Costa was blocked by the goalkeeper but only towards the oncoming Aduriz who gave Valencia CF the lead.

The happiness would not last long as Topal had an accident with some Racing player going head to head and having to play with 10 men and Racing would use that and score in the 88th minute to level the score.

With all the time wasted through injuries the referee awarded 7 minutes of additional time in which Ricardo Costa got a red card after some saber rattling with some Racing player.

Racing would have have the last chance in the 96th minute, but Alves would do a good job and make a save to keep the result at 2-2.

Player Ratings:
Diego 4.5 - Did a poor job. Wasn't tested too much, but could have done better for the two goals and even though he had one great save in the 96th minute, it was a poor performance overall.
Barragan 5.5 - Did well going forward and not particularly troubled at the back.
Costa 5 - Not very reassuring performance, although not directly at fault for the goals.
Ruiz 6 - Had few good blocks and that seems to be his overall strength, did a good job overall.
Mathieu 4.5 - Made several mistakes and one particular awful foul that earned him a yellow. Probably too fast to play after coming from injury.
Tino 7 - Great play by Tino who really shined after Ever was subbed and provided the assist to Aduriz first goal.
Ever 5 - Very poor play and obviously injured with reports now have as knee injury.
Feghuoli 4.5 - Lost too many balls and way too ineffective on the wing.
Jonas 5 - Mediocre performance and the highlight was a shot early on that went straight to the goalkeeper.
Piatti 5.5 - Quite active and seems to be performing better, probably a little tired tonight after a match only 3 days earlier.
Soldado 5 - Very ineffective and was nowhere to be seen. I feel like Emery should give him longer breaks from time to time as he has been one with the most minutes.
Subs:
Topal 5.5 - Did better than Ever and was actually a factor in play with some neat and simple passing and a better defensive job. Had a small brain damage after a collision head to head with another player.
Aduriz 7 - Great play by Aduriz scoring two goals after coming one. Some good poacher goals. He too suffered small brain damage and temporary loss of memory after a similar collision with one of the Racing defenders.
Bernat N/A - Not enough time.

Racing Santander vs Valencia CF match preview

2012-01-29T09:31:00.000+01:00

Racing Santander vs Valencia CF

Stadium: El Sardinero
29th January, 2012; 18:00CET
19th matchday, La Liga
Expected Attendance: 19.500
Coaches: Juanjo González and Unai Emery

This weekend Valencia CF travels to Santander to face off against Racing for this 19th matchday in what is going to be a crucial match after a few missteps in the Spanish league.

Valencia CF will be looking to get on the winning ways and try to close the gap between Real Madrid and especially Barcelona now that they drew with Villarreal, but also get away from Levante and the renewed Atletico Madrid who are climbing fast.

Unai Emery doesn't have steep competition right now and his job is safe, but if he fails to win this match he is going to come under pressure from the fans and the management there is no doubt about it. He is likely to have straighten things out with Tino Costa and Parejo for now and in that case is going to be relaxed ahead of this match. Right now both Banega and Tino are playing good, although Banega does seem on the downfall right now and will need a strong game tonight if he is to turn things around and fight off competition from Tino.

Racing Santander are currently 16th on the table with 20 points and under threat of relegation, although the points difference between the 10th place and 19th place is small and only Villarreal surprisingly is in real immediate danger of relegation and its a real possibility let me tell you. If they don't turn it around in the next several games their mentality will change from a competitive top 6 team to a small second division team and its going to get a lot harder to avoid relegation, especially after players start to get demoralized.

But Racing is right now in a bad, but not that bad of a position and will be looking for draw against Valencia and continue their slow climb on the table.

Racing are overall a balanced team with a small weaknesses in attack with only 15 goals scored, though they are not far off other team surrounding them. Their best goal scorer is Christian Stuani with 5 goals scored so far.

Valencia CF managed to beat Levante twice in the Copa Del Rey and are now in the semi final and will face Barcelona, but even so this is a good success and will be coming to this match relaxed, but hopefully not too relaxed because they've been slipping up in their last games.

Emery won't bring Miguel, Rami and Parejo, while Pablo is still injured and Albelda is serving out his red card in the last match. Good news is that Mathieu has returned and will travel with the team, although he probably won't be starting the match.

Valencia CF squad:

Goalkeepers: Alves, Guaita
Defenders: Bruno, Barragán, Dealbert, Víctor Ruiz, Ricardo Costa, Jordi Alba, Mathieu.
Midfielders: Tino Costa, Topal, Éver, Bernat, Feghouli, Piatti.
Forwards: Jonas, Aduriz, Soldad.

CA Osasuna vs Valencia CF - Match Preview

2012-01-22T08:39:00.003+01:00

CA Osasuna vs Valencia CF

Stadium: Reyno de Navarra

22nd January, 2012; 12:00CET

18th matchday, La Liga

Expected Attendance: 17.500

Coaches: José Luis Mendilibar and Unai Emery

CA Osasuna has been in good form this season and for most of the season has been in the top 7. Right now they are in the middle of the pack, but they have shown that they can compete with anybody and are going to be very tough opponents for Valencia.

Osasuna's best goalscorer is Ibrahima Balde with 5 goals scored so far and Raul Garcia is leading the assists chart with 5 of them. Both of them are likely to be the main threat for Valencia and so having the defensive midfielder closely follow those two would be best.
While Osasuna can be quite dangerous in attack their defense is one of the worst in La Liga with 30 goals conceded with only last placed Zaragoza and 18th placed Sporting Gijon having worse defensive records.

With this knowledge one can expect Osasuna to come out fighting and attacking for the start in order to cover for their defensive weaknesses so a more patient approach on the counter would be smart tactical choice for Valencia.

Valencia CF lost last match in La Liga against Real Sociedad and failed to come closer to Barcelona and Real Madrid. Luckilly the match later in the Copa Del Rey against Levante was won handily and made the loss from Sociedad a non issue, but Valencia CF need to get back on the winning tracks in La Liga, especially now since Atletico Madrid have started playing again and are demolishing everyone with the appointment of their new coach Simeone.

Unai Emery is having some selection problems with unfit or injured players and so only 18 players have been selected to travel and with them is B team players Portu and Juan Bernat. We are most likely going to see a 4-3-3 formation because we just lack wingers right now and Bernat would be risky to play since Valencia really need a victory in this match.

Valencia CF squad:

Goalkeepers: Diego Alves, Guaita.
Defenders: Bruno, Barragán, Dealbert, Rami, Jordi Alba.
Midfielders: Albelda, Topal, Éver, Tino Costa, Portu, Feghouli, Juan Bernat, Parejo.
Forwards: Jonas, Aduriz, Soldado.

Valencia CF 4-1 UD Levante - Match Report

2012-01-19T23:42:00.002+01:00

Valencia CF 4-1 UD Levante

Possession: 65%-35%

Goals: Jonas, Soldado, Kone, Piatti, Tino

Assists: Pablo(2)

Fouls: 18-19

The match started with a slow tempo with Valencia CF in control of the match as Levante seemed content to just sit back and defend and try to do something with the occasional counter attack. Apart from few runs the first bigger chance came in the 10th minute with Jonas shooting in goal after a corner kick by Tino Costa, but unfortunately it didn't go through.

After quite a battle in the middle of the pitch Valencia CF had the second chance in the 23rd minute as Piatti started a good attack, passed the ball to Pablo and this one made a wonderful pass just in the right time to release Jonas who slotted the ball into the net. It was 1-0 for Valencia.

28th minute a chance for Jonas occured once again after a corner kick by Tino Costa, but this time he only managed to shot at a Levante player in front of him.

30th minute goal by Soldado after a good run by Pablo did few dribbles to get past his marker and crossed the ball to a Levante defender, but this one had a poor clearance and bounced the ball to Soldado who wasn't going to miss an easy chance and easily slotted the ball into the net to make it 2-0 for Valencia.

Levante did attack actually and won a corner and it was after the corner which Alba cleared, but only shortly to the 25 meter and the ball went to Kone who with a very powerful shot, probably will challenge for goal of Cope Del Rey scored a goal for Levante. Diego Alves had no chance to stop it, although Rami could have probably done a little bit more to block the shot.

Then just in the final minute of the first half after an almost 5 minute siege in front of Levante goal and few attack, Pablo would break the ice once again and provide a great cross for Piatti who with a bit of luck got to the ball before Levante's goalkeeper and scored to make it 3-1 for Valencia CF.

Second half started in a similar fashion and it wasn't until the 60th minute when it came to more action as Barragan and Pablo both had long range efforts.

62th minute good chance for Levante on the left side by Roger I think, but Albelda managed to sprint to him and close him out in the last second and block his shot.

70th minute dangerous header by Adil Rami after a free kick by Tino Costa, but it went just wide.

It was only until the 89th minute when the next big chance came and it was for Levante as Kone found himself alone on goal, but his shot was saved by Diego Alves.

93th minute goal by Tino Costa after a counter by Valencia. The shot deflected off from a defender and lobbed the goalkeeper. It was 4-1.

Technical Details:

Valencia (4): Diego; Barragan, Rami, Ruiz, Alba; Albelda, Tino; Pablo(67min Feghuoli), Jonas(84min Aduriz), Piatti(74min Banega); Soldado.

Levante (1): Keylor(46min. Munua); Juanfran, Cabral, Ballesteros, Javi Venta; Iborra, Pallardo, Xavi torres, Barkero(11min. El Zhar); Kone, Roger(71min Rafa).

Player Ratings:

Diego 6 - Not troubled at all, made one good save in the last minutes to deny Levante a second goal.

Barragan 6 - Did well in attack and was quite dangerous. Never really challenged in defense.

Rami 5.5 - Not his best match as he has few lapses of concentration.

Ruiz 6 - Had two good blocks and was not troubled too much at the back.

Alba 6 - Good defensive and offensive display, but nothing spectacular.

Albelda 6.5 - Standard industrial performance with one particular good block.

Tino 6.5 - Good all round performance and a goal to top it all off.

Pablo (MOTM) 8.5 - Man of the match performance and one of his best performances in a long time. Provided 2 assists and directly created all 3 goals.

Jonas 5.5 - Scored a goal and was generally threatning in attack, but lost the ball too many times and made too many bad passes.

Piatti 6.5 - One of his better performances in a Valencia shirt and would be pleased with tonight's performance. Scored a goal to top it all off.

Soldado 6 - Scored a poachers goal and continues to consistently increase his overall goal tally.

Subs:

Feghuoli 5 - Wasn't very effective and unable to replicate Pablo's performance.

Banega 5.5 - Showed off a few tricks and showed off his passing range, but didn't have time to influence the game too much.

Aduriz N/A - Had a good match for the amount of time he had and was involved in two actions.

Official: Ever Banega extends contract to 2015

2012-01-19T08:52:00.001+01:00

Valencia CF official website announced that Ever Banega has officially extended his contract with Valencia CF until 2015.

The agreement has been reached after about 2 weeks of serious negotiations, which actually is quite fast. In the past Inter, Tottenham and Liverpool have been interested in Banega, but the interests cooled off after a poor performance by Banega for Argentina.

Both Banega and Valencia president Manuel Llorente expressed happiness about the the contract extension.

Valencia CF vs Real Sociedad - Match Preview

2012-01-14T13:46:00.000+01:00

Valencia CF will welcome Real Sociedad tonight at 22:00 hours central eastern time at the Mestalla for what is going to be a very interesting match. Valencia CF is coming to this game after a hard fought victory against Sevilla and even though they lost the game Valencia went on to the next round of the Copa Del Rey because of aggregate away goal rule victory.

Real Sociedad has historically been a preferable opponent and Valencia has great results against them, so this coupled with the fact that the team just played in the Copa, Unai Emery will likely field a completely different team and rest few key players.

Judging from the training Emery is going to start with Aduriz, because Soldado is suspended for this match at the front, Parejo just behind Aduriz, Topal and Tino on the places of Albelda and Banega, Piatti on the left wing replacing Mathieu and Pablo on the right wing replacing Feghuoli.

The back line is going to change as well with Ruiz out of the squad and it wouldn't surprise me to see Dealbert start, as there has been talk that Ricardo Costa is on his way out of the club in the winter transfer market. Bruno is likely to take Miguel's place as the right back and we may also see Guaita on goal if he has recovered.

With Soldado out of the team through suspension, Emery has called up Paco Alcacer and hopefully we'll see him play tonight, he certainly deserves it and needs the experience.

Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Guaita, Diego Alves.
Defenders: Bruno, Barragán, Rami, Ricardo Costa, Dealbert, Mathieu, Jordi Alba.
Midfielders: Topal, Tino Costa, Éver, Dani Parejo, Pablo, Feghouli, Piatti.
Forwards: Jonas, Alcácer, Aduriz.

David Albelda to be offered contract extension

2012-01-13T20:07:00.002+01:00

Manuel Llorente in a press conference early in the day said the club is going to offer David Albelda a contract extension of one year. David Albelda extended his contract last season by 1 year and is set to expire on the 30th June in the summer and Valencia is moving quickly to extend his contract as he has been a valuable asset to the team starting most of the matches and overshadowing Topal.

If you asked anyone last season they would have told you this is effectively going to be Albelda's last season and Topal will take over the reigns, but with few less than stellar performances Topal has fallen back in the pecking order and Albelda has provided consistency in the defensive midfield role as always.

Unai Emery also spoke and said David Albelda deserves a contract extension due to his good performances and positive attitude.

Albelda has been a good example both on in games, training, on and off the field and also commands respect in the dressing room something certainly Emery wants to have.

Fellow Valencia website closing down

2012-01-12T23:38:00.001+01:00

http://loco4losche.com/blogweb/index.php is a fellow Valencia CF website which I know most of you probably know and has been serving the Valencia fan community for the past 3 years. Its unfortunate Kyle is closing it down, but one can understand his choice.

I'd like to wish him good luck in all of his future endeavors and hope he stays a Valencia CF fan. As they say once you go Valencianista, you never go back. :)

Hopefully I can step up and try to soften up this blow by providing you with more news and articles.

Sevilla FC 2-1 Valencia CF (2-2 agg) - player ratings

2012-01-12T00:13:00.002+01:00

Diego 5.5 - Did great in the first half, but very insecure at the second and could have possibly done more for the second goal.
Miguel 6.5 - Good game from the Portuguese, rarely troubled and dealt with everything on his side fairly easily.
Rami 5.5 - Few silly mistakes and one blunder early in the game, but improved as the game wore on, but not the most assuring defending.
Ruiz 4 - Did well in the first half and looked the securer of the two defenders, but way worse in the second half with a lot of terrifying moments, scoring an own goal being of of those.
Mathieu 5.5 - Had a mixed game, several good tackles and marking, but got beaten few times as well.
Albelda 5.5 - Did well enough to cover, but made few bad passes in the first half giving away possesion in bad positions.
Banega 5.5 - Had some good moves and passes, but could not stamp his authority and did loose the ball several times in bad positions.
Feghuoli 5 - Run consistently all over the pitch and he is a machine in that sense, but lacked dribbling and technical skills to do much forward.
Jonas 6 - Was largely anonymous until a perfect deep pass to Soldado for the goal.
Alba 6.5 - One of the best performers on the pitch with good forward runs and good defending as well.
Soldado 6.5 - Scored a goal with a superb finish and was generally a threat with his runs for Sevilla.
Subs:
Tino 5 - Didn't do much and failed to have much contact with the ball as he was mostly acting as another defensive midfielder.
Parejo N/A - Not enough time
Pablo N/A - Not enough time

Finally in recent history to be able to go deeper into some competition and hopefully we continue with good results. The match itself was quite interesting and very scary towards the end as the suspension mounted and the last 2 minutes were hearth stopping. I don't know how much more of these games I can handle.

From the start it was all about Sevilla with ruthless pressure on our players forcing them to make errors and then having chances on goal. Diego Alves was called few times in the first half with two good opportunities for Sevilla, but Diego was on task and managed to defend. It was only around the 30th minute when the pressure dissipated and Valencia CF started playing more and even threaten Sevilla's goal.

The second half brought more of the same as in the first half, until Jonas made this superb pas out of nowhere to release Soldado alone in front of the goal and Soldado with an equally impressive finish slotted the ball past the goalkeeper.

The celebration would be short lived though and Sevilla would immediately level back the score to 1-1.
Sevilla would continue attacking until they managed to score another one in the 91st minute to make the end terrifying for Valencia CF fans. Sevilla had a chance to win in the last seconds as Kanoute got his head to a long cross, but was unable to direct in on goal and it went out with the whistle blowing there after to end the game with a victory for Valencia.

Jordi Alba agent negotiating with Barcelona

2012-01-11T13:25:00.002+01:00

Ever since Jordi Alba got into the Spanish national team Barcelona has stepped up their interest in Valencia's left back Jordi Alba, even though they've denied any serious interest.

Jordi Alba also spoke some time ago how he feels great in Valencia and that he would like to continue his career in Valencia CF. But his representatives seem to telling us something different as they've been seen talking to Barcelona representatives about a potential transfer.

Jordi Alba as I've written yesterday is valued at 10 million market value, though I'm pretty sure Valencia will want more, though I believe his transfer fee isn't much higher than 10 millions and if Barcelona pushed they can easily take Alba, assuming he wants to leave, which I have no doubt that he would love to move to Barcelona.

Valencia CF players market value - January

2012-01-10T16:16:00.001+01:00

Valencia CF has some really talented players in its squad, but how much are they really worth?

This is a tough process because there are no measurable element, there is no mathematical formula to form the price of a player, its basically how much the club values its own player and at what price is the club willing to sell the player.

The following list is based on current values and it can change depending on performance.

1. Roberto Soldado, 26 years old; positions: ST - 15 million euros
2. Ever Banega, 23 years old; positions: CM, AM - 12 million euros
2. Adil Rami, 25 years old; positions: CD - 12 million euros
3. Jeremy Mathieu, 27 years old; positions: LB - 11 million euros
4. Jordi Alba, 22 years old; positions: LB, LM, LW - 10 million euros
5. Diego Alves, 26 years old; positions: GK - 9 million euros
6. Pablo Hernandez, 26 years old; positions: RM, RW, AM, LW - 8 million euros
6. Tino Costa, 26 years old; positions: CM, AM - 8 million euros
6. Jonas, 27 years old; positions: AM, CF, ST - 8 million euros
6. Victor Ruiz, 22 years old; positions: CD - 8 million euros
7. Aritz Aduriz, 30 years old; positions: ST - 7 million euros
8. Mehmet Topal, 25 years old; positions: DM - 6 million euros
8. Daniel Parejo, 22 years old; positions: AM - 6 million euros
8. Sergio Canales, 20 years old; positions: AM, LM - 6 million euros
9. Hedwiges Maduro, 26 years old; positions: CD, DM, CM - 5 million euros
9. Vicente Guaita, 24 years old; positions: GK - 5 million euros
10. Angel Dealbert, 28 years old; positions: CD - 3.5 million euros
10. Sofiane Feghuoli, 21 years old; positions: AM, LW - 3.5 million euros
11. Ricardo Costa, 30 years old; positions: SW, CD - 3 million euros
12. David Albelda, 33 years old; positions: CD, DM, CF - 3 million euros
13. Miguel Brito, 31 years old; positions: RB - 2 million euros
14. Bruno Saltor, 30 years old; positions: RB, LB - 2 million euros

Daniel Parejo is a liability and we need him out!

2011-12-26T20:36:00.002+01:00

Daniel Parejo has not settled at all in Valencia CF. He arrived as a big talent in Valencia CF and one to basically take over from Banega if he was to leave, but since Banega stayed it didn't go well for him.

Banega was obviously playing the best football of his life and no one was going to play instead of him, not Parejo or Tino or anyone. Then Banega got injured and it was Tino who got the change and he instantly proved himself as he went on to play some crucial games.

Its not that Parejo didn't get a chance, its that when he got a chance he never used it. He never stood out, he did not do something no other can do and did not even seen interested to try really hard.

Since the circumstances were as such he began complaining a lot and had his agent speak with the sporting director to get Emery to give him more chances and that was the case. Emery did give Parejo more chances, but these were chances from a substitution spot as Valencia CF was playing crucial matches that it just couldn't afford to come out with a weaker squad and loose.

In all of his time on the pitch not once has Parejo been good, in fact he has been below average and if he is to blame anyone its himself because he is not good enough and needs to work 200% harder and put blood and sweat into getting better in order to have more chances so he can prove himself.

But no he has chosen the blame everyone, but myself, an easy way out and one that all too often we see in human nature. But this just shows his character and we don't need a whiner who isn't even good to be destroying the atmosphere in the team and I urge Braulio to sell him at once and use that money to secure the transfer of Van der Wiel.

I don't want anyone to defend Parejo and blame Emery for this and say he didn't give him enough chances because that is just not true and players like Feghuoli, Canales, Alba, etc... have all been second choice to Pablo, Jonas and Mathieu respectively before Canales overtook Jonas when he was fit and Feghuoli overtook Pablo and Alba even though has not overtook Mathieu does regularly start.

So this is a question of how good a players is and obviosly Parejo isn't better than Tino or Banega to start over them!

Sevilla next Valencia opponent in Copa Del Rey

2011-12-23T16:23:00.002+01:00

Valencia CF will meet FC Sevilla in the next round of the Copa Del Rey tournament. Unai Emery was happy with the draw and said that its time for revenge over the 2009/10 season loss, while sporting director Braulio wasn't too thrilled about it and said that Valencia would have wanted to avoid Sevilla, but that Valencia must go through tough opponents if they really plan on winning the cup.

Last 16
Mirandés - Racing
Albacete - Athletic
Alcorcón - Levante
Córdoba - Espanyol
Real Sociedad - Mallorca
Valencia - Sevilla
Barcelona - Osasuna
Real Madrid - Málaga

Quarter finals
A- Córdoba/Espanyol - Mirandés/Racing
B - Real Madrid/Málaga - Barcelona/Osasuna
C - Valencia/Sevilla - Alcorcón/Levante
D - Albacete/Athletic - Real Sociedad/Mallorca

Valencia CF to purchase Florent Malouda?

2011-12-21T17:24:00.003+01:00

Well if you believe English media Malouda is close to coming in Valencia CF and for no less than 6-7 million euros. Malouda has been getting very little playing time in Chelsea and with Mata transferring there and becoming a first team regular Malouda barely gets any playing time.

Chelsea are reportedly wanting to offload some of their old wood and Malouda is one of the players that they will try to sell to Valencia CF for 6-7 million euros.

Of course its more likely that the Loch Ness monster and Santa are real. Valencia doesn't have 7 million and especially not for Malouda. The only money that Valencia CF has is reserved for Van der Wiel.

Gregory van der Wiel reaches agreement with Valencia CF

2011-12-19T11:22:00.000+01:00

Ajax's right back Van der Wiel has confirmed to the Dutch media that he has reached an agreement with Valencia CF and that the deal will have him stay at Valencia CF until 2017, of course if negotiations go smoothly between the two clubs.

If the deal goes through Van der Wiel will stay at Ajax until the end of the current season, in a similar fashion to the deal Valencia made with Lille over Adil Rami.

So far the sides haven't reached an agreement over the transfer fee with Valencia offering 6 million and Ajax wanting 10 million, though sources have it that is deal could be reached for 7 million euros.

Valencia to face Stoke in Europa League

2011-12-16T18:53:00.000+01:00

The draw for the Champions League and the Europa League is over and all the matches are now known.

Valencia CF was very lucky and avoided all of the dangerous opponents and will face Stoke City. This is probably the best outcome one could have hoped for and with the major players like Manchester City, Manchester United, Porto and Ajax all to be eliminated by one another Valencia CF is going to have a good path, assuming we win against Stoke first though.

If we win against Stoke City then the possible opponent is Trabzonspor or PSV.

Europa League Last 32
Porto v Manchester City
Ajax v Manchester United
Lokomotiv Moscow v Athletic Bilbao
Salzburg v Metalist
Stoke v Valencia
Rubin v Olympiacos
AZ v Anderlecht
Lazio v Atletico Madrid
Steaua v Twente
Viktoria Plzen v Schalke
Wisla v Standard Liege
Braga v Besiktas
Udinese v PAOK
Trabzonspor v PSV
Hannover v Club Brugge
Legia v Sporting Lisbon

Valencia to resume construction of new Mestalla

2011-12-13T14:53:00.001+01:00

Valencia announced that it has reached an agreement with Bankia to resume construction of the new stadium as soon as next year, which is basically just two weeks away.

The deal will have Bankia loan Valencia 140 million euros for the completition of the new Mestalla, while Valencia CF gives away the current Mestalla land and new Mestalla land, including the hotel to the bank and in turn have their 240 million debt to the bank wiped out.

Ultimately Valencia CF will now still be about 260 million in debt, but that is about 100 million less than it currently is.

The fact that 140 million is not enough to finish the new stadium means that Valencia CF will have monetary help from the local government to build the stadium.

Valencia president Manuel Llorente was pretty excited about the deal saying how Valencia CF will have one of the best stadiums in Europe, but realistically he was under pressure to do something and with the stadium already suffering at least 1-2 million in repair damages every year and no end to Spain's financial troubles he probably was forced into this deal.

Still its better than holding onto huge debts and decaying stadium.

Chelsea FC 3-0 Valencia CF player ratings

2011-12-06T22:41:00.001+01:00

Diego 6 - Had to make 3 saves and did a good job, arguable if he can do more for the first goal.
Barragan 5 - At fault for the first goal, he fell down and allowed Mata to provide the assist to Drogba. Was nowhere to react on the second one as well, although wasn't at fault directly.
Rami 4 - Suspect at all times with poor defending for the first goal and poor defending overall.
Ruiz 3.5 - Poor defending all round, directly responsible for the second goal and suspect at all times, but you got to realize he was injured and shouldn't have even played in such an important match unfit and out of form.
Alba 4.5 - Suspect in defense with some poor clearances. Did well in attack, but was too little too bad.
Albelda 6 - Good display from the veteran who was the only person not scared from Chelsea and made few defensive interceptions.
Tino 5.5 - Poor delivery from set pieces which are supposed to be his biggest strength. I feel like he was maybe a little bit tired as he played just 3 days ago on the weekend against Espanyol.
Feghuoli 5.5 - The only player that created a few actions and tried hardest to do something, but had no one to play with.
Jonas 5 - Completely anonymous and I'm, surprised Emery didn't change him on half time.
Mathieu 5.5 - Was decent in attack with some good link-up play with Alba and Tino and provided few crosses, but he is not sophisticated enough to be a real winger. He has good crosses and speed, but he is too simple of a player and doesn't cut inside ever to be a real winger and VCF need to find a good winger in the winter.
Soldado 5 - Didn't see the ball at all. Apart from one shot he had absolutely no service.
Subs:
Aduriz 5 - One header towards goal, a good one as well, but that was about it.
Pablo 5 - Worse than Feghuoli and literally only had 4-5 touches with the ball.
Parejo 5 - Didn't add anything at all.

Unai Emery 4 - Said he would play Miguel against Chelsea and back off on his own word and that negatively reflected as Barragan was pretty much responsible for the first goal.
He also played Ruiz straight out of injury when he probably isn't even fully fit and it backfired miserable as Ruiz was crap all night long. He also was wrong to start searching for a quick goal from the start and in these kind of cases its better to just sit back and slowly grind out a goal somewhere in the 80-90 minute and have little time for the opposition to recover.

I need someone to get me Unai Emery email so that I can send him my tactical analysis of my deep studies before matches like this.

Chelsea FC vs Valencia CF - Match Preview

2011-12-06T10:35:00.001+01:00

Chelsea FC vs Valencia CF

Stadium: Stamford Bridge

6th fixture, Champions League

Expected attendance: 42.000

Coaches: Andre Villas-Boas and Unai Emery

Here we are once again meeting Chelsea in the Champions League and who would have thought its for a spot in the last sixteen as neither team has managed to guarantee a place as Valencia CF failed to win in the first match against Genk and Chelsea lost in the last match against Leverkusen and thus in the last round both team will fight for a place in the round of 16 and there is only one slot left.

Theoretically both Chelsea and Valencia could qualify, but Genk would have to win against Leverkusen and Chelsea and Valencia drawing, which judging from their last game is not going to happen.

Both managers have come out and said they are going for victory and Emery wants Valencia to score early so it can close out the match routinely, although I have a feeling its going to be anything but routinely. With both midfields suffering as Lampard has been under-performing and Ever Banega while traveled to London is supposedly still injured and can't perform its going to be up to the teams attacks where the game is going to be decided.

Chelsea FC are coming to this match after a series of bad results and sort of a mini-crisis, although they won their last match against Newcastle convincingly 3-0. Newcastle also had a great defensive record prior to that match and so while probably not 100% back to form, Chelsea are looking better and better and from my deep analysis before this match their problem was David Luiz and Frank Lampard. They pretty much performed miserably and are mostly to blame. Hopefully Boas won't realize this and will play both of them against Valencia.

Juan Mata and Sturridge have been the best performing players in Chelsea, with Terry closely following with mostly reliable performances at the back. There has been talk that Anelka has been sold or very close to it and if the reports are true it will mean he won't feature in the team and that leaves them with the old Drogba, still inexperienced Sturridge and the out of form and misfiring Torress.

Can Chelsea put it together and fire up for this match to beat Valencia and qualify for the last 16 or will they continue in their slump and fail miserably at the hands of Valencia!

Valencia CF on the other hand are coming off a more modest win on the weekend against Espanyol, but it was a hard fought victory and one that will surely boost the team confidence coming to this match against Chelsea. Roberto Soldado has also been firing on all 8 cylinders and scored a goal within minutes of coming on against Espanyol giving Valencia the victory. Tonight we'll need him to be precise and 100% on target if Valencia is to win.

Our midfield will also need to be working 110% to be able to cope with the 4-3-3 formation of Chelsea who are going to have a man more in midfield, although our 4-2-3-1 formation is more flexible in that you can easily put 6 people in attack and 5 people in defense really fast, although that requires a lot of running.

Technical Details Chelsea FC (probable setups):
Formation: 4-3-3
Line-up: Cech; Bosingwa, Ivanovic, Terry, Cole; Ramires, Lampard, Meireles; Sturridge, Drogba, Mata.
Tactics: Medium defensive line, own half closing, three way attacks, free role Mata, mostly short passing.

Technical Details Valencia CF (probable setups)
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Diego; Barragan, Rami, Ruiz, Alba; Tino, Albelda; Pablo, Jonas, Mathieu; Soldado.
Tactics: Medium defensive line, all round pressure, positional changes from the wingers, 3 way attacks, mixed passing.

Result prediction

Valencia CF 1-1 Chelsea FC

We are going to go for a quick goal, Emery said that is what he wants so the team will go all in from the beginning and try to get a quick goal. Ultimately I see two outcomes either 1-1 draw or 3-1 win for Valencia.

Valencia CF 2-1 RCD Espanyol - Match Report

2011-12-03T23:00:00.001+01:00

In the 5th minute Dealbert was fouled in the penalty area abd Valencia CF given a penalty, with Tino Costa taking it and with a powerful shot in the 90% degrees of the net scoring to put Valencia CF in the lead 1-0. Before the penalty was given Rami actually scored with a header, but of course the whistle was already blown.

Pressing from Valencia CF in the next 5 minutes, but no chance for a goal and Espanyol would threaten in the 11th minute after an throw-out, but luckily no player from Espanyol was close to ball to head it towards goal.

15th minute a good run by Alba on the left and manages a cross, but it couldn't quite found Aduriz.

19th minute Aduriz with a good run after being released by Pablo that results in a shot, but the Espanyol goalkeeper saves his goal. Just seconds after a chance for Pablo on the right and then a shot from Tino Costa, but again the goalkeeper saves.

Espanyol then pushed forward and Rami makes a mistake allowing a pass by him, but luckilly Dealbert was alert and block it in the last moment or it could have been very dangerous.

27th minute almost a chance for Valencia after a good one-two by Topal and Mathieu allowed Mathieu through on goal, but the final ball was missing. Moments later Alba claimed a second penalty after falling in the penalty area after a bit of struggle with a defender, but the referee denied it.

Few actions in a row for Valencia later and a shit on goal after a korner with Aduriz heading the ball just wide off goal.

First half ended with Valencia on the attack and trying to score a 2nd goal, even though Espanyol had more of the possession.

First 10 minutes of the second half were quite uneventful with just one decent chance for Valencia from the left side.

The next 10 minutes till 65th were mostly attacks and tries by Espanyol , but unable to directly threaten Diego on goal. All that attacking play would pay off though as Rami makes a mistake and allowes Moeno to score a goal for Espanyol in the 68th minute.

Nice pass by Jonas in the 75th minute, but Aduriz there failed to react in time and missed a good opportunity.

Soldado would replace Aduriz and just minute after coming on in the 79th minute would score a goal with his head after a corner kick taken by Tino Costa.

Espanyol would desperately try to score once again till the end, but Valencia CF ended up defending and managed to win.

Player Ratings:
Diego 6 - Not tested too much and had one good save in the first half and generally stable on corners and crosses. Did not have a chance for the goal.
Barragan 6 - Did well defensively, but failed to go forward too much and didn't link up with Pablo at all.
Rami 4.5 - Bad match for Rami as he made two crucial mistakes and smaller ones like dribbling in his own half and loosing the ball few times. Guilty for allowing Morano to score as he failed to clear the ball.
Dealbert 6.5 - Positive performance from Dealbert and dealt with everything Espanyol could throw at him.
Alba 7 - Great match from Alba with crucial interventions in the back and great work as well going in attack.
Topal 6 - Simple passing and good defensive cover with few rare forward arrays.
Tino 6 - Scored from the penalty with a powerful and accurate shot, but completely overrun in the midfield and seemed quite tired or unwilling to run. Rather poor performance by him, but he made up for it with his good set pieces play and providing the assist to Soldado with his corner kick.
Pablo 5.5 - Rather anonymous performance with few decent passes and few misplaced passes. Overall did not contribute too much.
Piatti 6 - Started slow, but went on to trouble Espanyol on several occasions with his runs, but as with the rest of the attackers failed to link-up with everyone.
Mathieu 6.5 - Best of the forwards with several good runs and crosses and good link-up play with Alba.
Aduriz 5.5 - Had few runs, but could not find himself in goalscoring positions and realistically didn't have too much support.
Subs:
Bruno 5.5 - Replaced Barragan at half time and did well defensively, but did worse in attack than Barragan.
Jonas 5.5 - Had one good through pass and a shot, but failed to do too much.
Soldado 6 - Came in and scored in his first minute to win Valencia the match. Good stuff.

Valencia CF vs RCD Espanyol Match Preview

2011-12-03T05:53:00.001+01:00

Valencia CF vs RCD Espanyol

Stadium: Mestalla

03.12.11; 22:00 CET

17th matchday, La Liga

Expected Attendance: 40.000

Coaches: Unai emery and Mauricio Pochettino

Valencia CF has been in great form the last few weeks with wins in the Champions League and La Liga. We are third position on the table just 4 points behind Barcelona, a feat that would have seemed impossible one or two years ago. Surprisingly though Levante, the other Valencia based club is hot on our heels with just one less point and even though we defeated them in a good fashion 2-0, they seem to be doing pretty well for themselves and are proving to be stiff competition so far.

Valencia CF just needs to continue winning, grinding out wins if it has to and keep close to the big two this season as that is the goal, the overall objective set by the president Llorente and Emery. We welcome RCD Espanyol at the Mestalla today and unlike last season where they were in the top 4 positions with some great defensive displays, Espanyol are at the more modest 9th position on the table right now.

As far as injuries and recovery, Guaita is recovered, but will still not feature just in case and Ever Banega and Ricardo Costa are progressing well, but still got some way to go before they are fit to even be in contention for selection. Victor Ruiz is also in question and probably won't play, but its not exactly sure. In other news Miguel has had a bit of a slip up in his behavior and has missed training by some 30 minutes and as punishment Emery will not include him for this match, which means most likely Barragan is going to start again as he seems to be better than Bruno.

Soldado and Jonas are probably going to be rested and Aduriz and Piatti should take their places. I'd also expect Parejo to feature, but that may be taking it a bit far for Emery and he is probably going to play it safe with Tino Costa.

RCD Espanyol on the other hand are 9th on the table with only 17 points a staggering number of 6 losses so far. They haven't been liking in the back, but have one of the poorest scoring records in the league so far with only 10 goals scored, Valencia in comparison has scored 21 goals. They are also worse when visiting teams and haven't been able to hold out for draws.

Espanyol's last three matches have been decent with two draws and one loss, but they will be hoping for some wins at least in the future if at against Valencia. They are likely to be very motivated for this match and as always I predict that Valencia CF will need to suffer in order to get a result, but we should win over Espanyol and have ease of mind and be comfortable going into the Champions league match against Chelsea!

Result Prediction:
Valencia CF 2-0 RCD Espanyol

Rayo Vallecano 1-2 Valencia CF - Player Ratings

2011-11-26T22:07:00.001+01:00

Diego 6 - Did not have too much to do, but did well on the two occasions he had to react. No chance for the goal.
Barragan 6 - Did well defensively not too troubled and was decent going forward as well.
Rami 6 - Did have few header clearances and wasn't particularly troubled, decent display.
Dealbert 5.5 - Mixed bag performance, he did have some nice interceptions and blocks, but had a few lapses as well.
Alba 6.5 - Started really well making some crucial tackles and interceptions in defense and doing well going forward as well, but diminished in effectiveness later on, being passed two times with ease and was involved in the mix up along with Dealbert in Vallecano's goal.
Albelda 6 - Had two good interventions to stop the Rayo attacks progressing, earning a yellow for on of those interventions though.
Tino 6 - Scored a goal and closed down all over the field rather nicely, but not a great performance.
Feghuoli 6 - Always a hard worker and covers a lot of ground going back and helping out in defense, but wasn't too good on the attacking side and apart from the assist did not do much.
Jonas 6.5 - Scored a good goal from a distance and was generally dangerous. Most of his passes failed though, but still a pretty good display.
Mathieu 6 - Had few trademark crosses and provided the assist for Jonas, but again other than that not too impressive.
Soldado 6 - Combined well with Feghuoli on the right leading up to the goal and some good runs deep, but lacked the service today.
Subs:
Aduriz 5.5 - Did have few runs towards goal, but couldn't quite make it. He did come and help out in defense though quite a bit.
Pablo 5 - Apart from being involved in one action just after his arrival went missing and I did not see him again.
Piatti 5 - More active than Pablo and had had few runs, but they all ultimately failed.

Rayo Vallecano vs Valencia CF Match Preview

2011-11-26T14:00:00.001+01:00

Rayo Vallecano will welcome Valencia CF at its stadium after eight years of pause and winning promotion to the top division this season. Last time these two clubs played was back in 2003 where Vallecano was destroyed by 4-0.
Since then all but one are still playing for Valencia and yes you guessed rights its David Albelda. All the rest of the golden time guys like Baraja, Angulo, Vicente, etc are now gone. Last one to go was Vicente who currently plays in England's second division.

Rayo Vallecano got promoted this season to the Primera League after playing in lower divisions for 8 years. Rayo Vallecano have so far been decent and certainly the bad start of several bigger clubs like Villarreal, Getafe have allowed them to occupy the quite high 10th position on the table, but that is not to take away anything from Rayo Vallecano as they are playing some good football and are very compact as a unit, as a team. In fact they have a pretty good balance of goals scored and goals conceded and there is no doubt they will be a tough opponent.

Valencia CF on the other hand are coming to this match as the favorites and high from the 7-0 victory over Genk at the Champions League. But that victory should not blind or life from reality our players as reality can hit them in the face real hard and the higher you fall the nastier it is. Valencia CF needs to go into this match fully concentrated and prepared, mentally ready and be ready for a hard fight with lots of suffering in order to win.

This is not going to be a cake walk and we certainly won't be seeing a 7-0 trashing here and hopefully the players will know this and be ready to methodically and patiently chip away at the Vallecano defense until we can score a goal or two and win.

Valencia CF will be without Victor Ruiz though for the first time since he's arrived here and Dealbert is likely to take his place alongside Rami. Ricardo Costa, Ever Banega, Hedwiges Maduro and Sergio Canales are still injured and in the case of the later three they have long term injuries. In fact the earliest to return may be Ever Banega in two weeks or so.

Also most likely to get back on goal in Guaita who has been suffering from a hand injury for some time and wasn't on the goal for Real Madrid. Since Diego Alves did make some big mistakes in that match I think Emery is going to easily put Guaita back between the sticks now that he is supposedly healed.

Valencia CF squad:

Goalkeepers: Guaita, Alves.
Defenders: Miguel, Barragán, Bruno, Rami, Dealbert, Mathieu y Jordi Alba.
Midfielders: Topal, Albelda, Tino Costa, Parejo, Pablo Hernández, Féghouli y Piatti.
Forwards: Jonas, Aduriz y Soldado.

Valencia CF 7-0 KRC Genk - player ratings

2011-11-23T22:31:00.001+01:00

Diego 6 - Did not have much at all to do and apart from three saves that was it. Did well to make those though.
Miguel 7 - Did well in defense and provided the assist for Aduriz goal.
Rami 6.5 - Did well enough and had few blocks, but not challenged much.
Ruiz 5.5 - Had two nice blocks and rarely tested, replaced at half time.
Mathieu 6 - Did well enough in defense and provided some good crosses in attack.
Topal 6 - Did good in midfield and then later in defense making some crucial interceptions.
Tino 7 - Very energetic performance, covered a lot of ground and provided good passes, scoring a goal as well.
Feghuoli 6.5 - Covered a lot of ground and made several interceptions in defense, provided decent attacking threat.
Jonas 8.5 (MotM) - Man of the match performance from Jonas, who although was outscored tonight he provided the biggest attacking threat scoring one goal, providing ~~(two~~)three assists and being involved in most of Valencia attacks.
Pablo 7 - Somewhat reserved in the first half, but improved in the second and became a genuine threat with clever movement and passing, scoring a great goal in the process.
Soldado 8 - Almost man of the match performance, but this time he was outdone by Jonas. Scored a hat trick and was always a threat for Genk.
Subs:
Parejo 5 - Wasn't too visible and didn't do anything of note. Failed to impress once again and his chances are becoming less and less with performances like this.
Piatti 6 - Instant threat and slotted well with the rest of the attackers providing some good runs on the flank, having a shot at goal as well.
Aduriz 6.5 - Came in and in his short time scored a great goal, showing good anticipation, strength and finishing skills. Had two more opportunities, but couldn't quite make it.

Valencia 3-3 Real Madrid - Pre match report

2011-11-20T06:53:00.001+01:00

This video clearly shows Valencia CF has been damaged and it should have been 3-3. Higuain should also be given a ban for 3/4 matches for unsportsmanship.

Valencia CF vs Real Madrid - Match Preview

2011-11-18T10:19:00.001+01:00

Valencia CF vs Real Madrid

Stadium: Mestalla

19.11.11; 22:00 CET

11th matchday, La Liga

Expected Attendance: 52.000

Coaches: Unai emery and Jose Mourinho

Its that time again in the new season where we face the title chasers and favorites for winning it, the kings club Real Madrid. The matches between Valencia CF and Real Madrid have always been very entertaining and have attracted huge crowds and a lot of viewership not only in Spain, but all over the world.

No doubt this is going to be an interesting clash once again and an entertaining game and in a lot of ways its a measurement for Spanish clubs in recent years to assess their strengths against the giants Barcelona and Real Madrid, but this time will be different though as Valencia CF brought the game to Barcelona when we faced them and managed a strong performance, earning a draw with a chance to have won it. Real Madrid so far look the most solid in La Liga so this will be a sterner test than even Barcelona and a positive showing and result which would include a draw also would be great for the confidence of the players and will enable us to stay up there to Real And Barca.

Unlike Barcelona though all Real Madrid players are in their prime time and have shown better performance this season that the previous ones and with new signings like Coentrao to strengthen the squad even more Real Madrid look very strong. Xabi Alonso is as good as ever, Ronaldo has improved in his overall game and even provides assists now and Benzema has truly become much better. So unlike Barcelona with aging and diminishing players like Xavi, Abidal, Puyol, Villa, etc... we are going to face a Real Madrid side better than ever.

With all that said Valencia CF is a different team as well and with the defensive duo of Rami and Ruiz as well as the great performances from Mathieu we have a defense better than what we've had in the past 5-6 years and with some re-surging players like Tino Costa, Albelda we have a chance.

Valencia CF gets 40 million TV rights money, Real Madrid gets 120 million TV rights money. Valencia champions league qualification is considered a success, while for Real Madrid second place in the biggest failure.
The contrast between these two clubs is huge, especially in recent years, but when these two sides meet on the grass what matters is only the performance on the pitch and nothing else.

Head to Head
24/04/2011	SPL	Valencia vs Real Madrid	3 - 6
05/12/2010	SPL	Real Madrid vs Valencia	2 - 0
19/04/2010	SPL	Real Madrid vs Valencia	2 - 0
13/12/2009	SPL	Valencia vs Real Madrid	2 - 3
10/05/2009	SPL	Valencia vs Real Madrid	3 - 0
21/12/2008	SPL	Real Madrid vs Valencia	1 - 0
18/08/2008	Spain Super	Valencia vs Real Madrid	3 - 2
01/11/2007	SPL	Valencia vs Real Madrid	1 - 5
27/11/2006	SPL	Valencia vs Real Madrid	0 - 1
24/10/2005	SPL	Real Madrid vs Valencia	1 - 2
23/10/2004	SPL	Real Madrid vs Valencia	1 - 0

Valencia CF is coming to this match after two good wins in the Spanish league and champions league. In the last match against Levante Tino Costa had an amazing match providing an assist and scoring the second goal. With Banega injured for at least 3 weeks, its up to Tino Costa to organize the midfield and link-up play, Emery has told him to step up his game and he did it against Levante, but this is Real Madrid and he will need to step up his game once again over his stepping up previously.

Valencia is currently third on the table and close within Real and Barca and getting a positive result in this match will do wonders. At this point there are no new injuries and Emery can choose from pretty much of of the squad.

Valencia CF squad: to be announced...

Real Madrid is coming to this match after several convincing victories including a 7-1 mauling of Osasuna, so they will be full on confidence. Cristiano Ronaldo had a little injury scare, but he is reported to be recovered and will feature for Real Madrid. Di Maria is an unknown and Kaka is I believe still inured so we are at least not going to see him. To remind everyone Kaka was the main player to destroy Valencia last season in the second match between these two teams.

Real Madrid squad: to be announced...

Technical Details Valencia CF (probable setups):
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Guaita; Miguel, Rami, Ruiz, Mathieu; Albelda, Tino; Feghuoli; Jonas, Alba; Soldado.
Tactics: Low defensive line, own half pressure, double left side cover, high frequency wing attacks, counter attacks, mixed passing.

Technical Details Real Madrid (probable setups):
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Casillas; Arbeloa, Ramos, Pepe, Coentrao; Alonso, Khedira; Callejon, Ozil, Ronaldo; Benzema.
Tactics: low defensive line, all round pressure, interchangeable left side, long shots.

Result Prediction:
Valencia CF 1-3 Real Madrid
Lets be real here we are going to loose and loose badly. We are going to be defending most of the time and concede two goals, we are going to get lucky on the counter attack and score one back, but Real will take control and completely dominate and score a third goal to put the game to rest.

Report: Players on international duty

2011-11-17T08:50:00.001+01:00

Turkey; Mehmet Topal
Mehmet Topal did not start for Turkey and unlike the previous match he did not come in as substitute either.

France; Adil Rami and Jeremy Mathieu
Adil Rami started and played the full 90 minutes for France and while I didn't watch the match if we were to trust goal.com they gave him a 5 and said he wasn't too good.
Jeremy Mathieu did not start in France's second match as Erik Abidal took his place, although Mathieu played great when given the opportunity and had decent chances to be called for Euro 2012.

Brazil; Diego Alves and Jonas Goncalves
Diego Alves started and played the full 90 minutes of the match and while he wasn't troubled much he did well on those rare occasions and might as well have secured himself a permanent place in the team.
Jonas Goncalves started and played for most of the match scoring two goals in the process to give Brazil 2-0 win over Egypt.

Spain; Jordi Alba
Jordi Alba did not play in Spain's match against Costa Rica in which Spain drew 2-2 with pretty bad defensive display. Monreal from Malaga was given the spot instead and it seems with his poor performance like Jordi has guaranteed his spot in the Spanish team for the Euro 2012.

Italian teams interested in Jeremy Mathieu

2011-11-14T09:53:00.000+01:00

Ladies and gents few days ago I wrote a news article "will our defensive trio be sold?", but that wasn't true, its the defensive quad. Jeremy Mathieu is the latest victim of increased interest from top clubs all over Europe with his great performances.

Roma and Milan have been interested in securing his services, Bayern Munich was at one point interested and recently reports say that Inter are interested in the Frenchmen seeing as how Yuto Nagamoto didn't turn out how they hoped he would and Chivu is unreliable.

Right now Valencia CF is in the middle of a new contract extension work that would increase Mathieu's contract and of course increase his buyout clause.

Report: Valencia players on international duty

2011-11-13T10:13:00.001+01:00

Brazil; Diego Alves, Jonas Goncalves
Diego Alves started and played the full 90 minutes in Brazil's match. He wasn't particualry tested, but did well on the few occasions he was called in.
Jonas Goncalves played for three quarters of the match and was decent, but was a bit wasteful with the chances he got.

France; Adil Rami, Jeremy Mathieu
Adil Rami started and played the full 90 minutes in France's match and did great, with France not conceding a goal.
Jeremy Mathieu started for the first time for France after being feature in the squad for the last two matches, but not even sitting on the bench. He did good and just might get a permanent place in the squad.

Tureky; Mehmet Topal
Mehmet Topal did not start in his national team 3-0 beating, although he did come in in the fourth quarter. He stabilized the play in midfield, but didn't offer much.

Spain; Jordi Alba
Jordi Alba started and played the full 90 minutes for Spain against England and did good, with few dangerous runs in the first half and a good defensive display.

Official: Paco Alcacer extends contract to 2016

2011-11-12T20:33:00.001+01:00

Great news ladies and gents as Paco Alcacer has just extended his contract with Valencia CF to 2016, it was reported on the official Valencia CF website.

Valencia president Manuel Llorente was very happy and said that Paco Alcacer showed interest to stay at Valencia even with several clubs being interested in him; "Paco is an important player in our club and I'm sure that we'll see him in the first team soon and that would make out fans very happy."

Paco said "It's a joy for my family and I to play at a club as big as Valencia, who has shown confidence in me. Valencia is doing things right."

Defensive trio of Rami, Ruiz and Alba to be sold?

2011-11-11T00:44:00.000+01:00

The great performances from Adil Rami and Victor Ruiz have not been left unnoticed unfortunately and several clubs have shown huge interest in taking their services.

Real Madrid and Manchester United are currently interested in Adil Rami with both Jose Mourinho and Alex Ferguson two of the best coaches in the world keeping close tabs and keen to get the defender. In fact with all the interest being show in Adil Rami even so early Valencia CF are going to start negotiations to extend Rami's contract and improve the buyout clause.

Victor Ruiz has also been very impressive and he is also very young so he has still a long way to improve, he is also a Barcelona youth school product so Barcelona have shown considerable interest in him in this past week and there is serious consideration to strengthen their back line either in the winter transfer market or in the summer and with Puyol, Abidal and Maxwell all on their last year probably Ruiz is their prime target.

Another Barcelona youth product that is also friends with Ruiz from the Barca days is Jordi Alba and his been impressive on the left side either in defense or attack and has also caught the interest of Barcelona.
Milan have also reportedly shown interest in Jordi Alba and few other clubs are closely monitoring his performances and situation.

Mathieu to extend his contract with Valencia CF

2011-11-09T21:01:00.002+01:00

The French left back Jeremy Mathieu is likely to extend his contract with Valencia CF as his current deal is supposedly to keep him until 2014, but his release clause is very low at only 3 million euros and the club wants to increase the clause to at least 10 million euros, as not to loose him to the cheap.

Right now Mahtieu is worth around 10 million euros and is you go to Mathieu's profile page I have him valued at 11 million euros, so loosing him for 3 million would be terrible.

Mathieu has also recently been called to the French squad and although unlikely to feature more at least this year, with Evra and Abidal on the end of their careers, Mathieu is going to have increased chances to feature for France, especially since he plays with Rami and can form a great defensive partnership.

The new contract should keep Mathieu until at least 2016 and have a release clause of at least 10 million euros, although Valencia CF will probably want more like 15 million clause, which is the same we sold Albiol few years back to Madrid and Mathieu is on that level.

Angel Di Maria out for one month

2011-11-07T15:14:00.001+01:00

Yeah I know this isn't about Valencia CF, but in a way it is news concerning Valencia CF. Angel Di Maria sustained a hamstring problem in Real Madrid's 7-1 victory over Osasuna. The initial reports is that he will be sidelined for one month and that means that he is not going to be in the squad to face Valencia.

As you know Kaka is also injured, although he may return by then, but certainly won't be fit enough. So this is great news for Valencia CF as Di Maria has been great on the right side for Madrid.

Levante 0-2 Valencia CF - Player Ratings

2011-11-06T14:38:00.000+01:00

Guaita 7 - Had to make few saves, including two difficult shots and did so superbly. Another quality performance from the keeper.
Bruno N/A - Got injured in the early stages and was replaced by Barragan.
Rami 6 - Not as good as he usually is, got beaten twice by direct running and got bailed out by Ruiz, quite poor performance.
Ruiz 7 - Great performance from the young defender, stopped few crucial attacks and bailed out Rami on few occasions as well. Was a rock at the back and even helped out in midfield plentifully.
Mathieu 6 - Had one solid cross that Soldado just barely failed to get to and provided few good attacking opportunities, but defensively was rather weak and got beaten quite a few times.
Feghuoli 7.5 - Great performance by Feghuoli, was all over the pitch involved in pretty much every attack and provided some much needed attacking threat.
Albelda 6 - Did quite well to stop Levantes attacks and provided few basic passes, reliable as always.
Tino 7.5 - Stepped up his game and provided the assist to the first goal and then scored the second goal. Was dominant in the midfield and kept things working. If he continues having performances of this level he can easily dethrone Banega.
Alba 6 - He did quite well in attack, linking up with few of the players, but when going back to defend made a lot of mistakes. Also got tired towards the end and apart from his goal, it wasn't a great performance.
Aduriz 6 - Found himself with few half baked opportunities, but couldn't quite make something out of it.
Soldado 5.5 - Quite lacking and apart from few defensive contributions that was it. Rightfully substituted over Aduriz.
Subs:
Barragan 6 - Provided a good attacking outlay, went forward as much as possible although with limited success and did well enough defensively. I actually felt more at ease with him playing then with Bruno.
Piatti 5.5 - Full of running in the time he had and did have some good solo runs, although could not create something as Valencia were on the defensive at the time.
Pablo N/A - Not enough time, although he did make quite a bit of mistakes in his short time.

Valencia CF vs Bayer 04 Leverkusen - Match preview

2011-10-31T10:05:00.002+01:00

Valencia CF vs Bayer Leverkusen

Stadium: Mestalla

01.11.2011; 20:45 CET

4th fixture champions league

Expected attendance: 47.000

Coaches: Unai Emery and Robin Dutt

The fourth fixtures of the Champions League are upon us and Valencia CF will welcome Bayer Leverkusen at the Mestalla for a footballing spectacle, well okay maybe not quite, but this is going to be a very interesting match nonetheless as Valencia CF try to exact revenge for their loss in Germany and try and make a strong push to win all their remaining games to continue in the Champions League.

This is a must win match for both clubs and a loss here will probably mean going down to the Europa League or worse yet maybe even finishing last in the group. A draw will not serve both clubs and will mean Valencia CF is surely falling out of the Champions League and going down to the Europe League, although that wouldn't be sure either.

Valencia CF is coming to this match after a convincing win on 3-1 in the weekend against Getafe CF and the team are looking to build on that momentum and try and get a so desired win against Bayer Leverkusen that is going to allow Valencia to be in contention for second place in the group and going to the round of 16. This is a desperate situation and anything but a win would spell the end for Valencia CF in the champions league.
While the Europe league isn't bad either, you get a lot less money out of it and of course its not as prestigious, although its actually very competitive.

If you haven't heard Valencia CF have two long term injured players in Maduro and Canales, but other than that everyone so far is in good health and fitness and Emery's got the full squad to choose from. Who he chooses to start is a different matter though as Feghuoli has been playing better and better, while Pablo has been playing worse and worse and will he deem Alba or Mathieu better at left wing that say putting Pablo there or Piatti. If anythign our options on the left are quite big, but not very quality and previously Mata was so good there providing assists and scoring goals frequently and helping out the team.

Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Alves, Guaita.
Defenders: Bruno, Miguel, Barragan, Rami, Victor Ruiz, R.Costa, Dealbert, Jordi Alba, Mathieu.
Midfielders: Albelda, Topal, Éver, T. Costa, Pablo, Feghouli, Piatti, Parejo.
Forwards: Jonas, Adúriz, Soldado.

Bayer 04 Leverkusen on the other hand is with one foot in the round of 16 and even a draw would benefit them, and of course a win would mean they are in the round of 16. They are likely to defend though and try and get a draw, which in a way pretty much guarantees they go in the round of 16. The one thing they wouldn't want though is to loose as that would open up a chance for Valencia CF.

Bayer so far have not been too good in their national championship and are currently in the middle of the table with 17 points out of 11 played games. Of course in Spain that would probably put you in 6th or 7th position and so in that regard they are not weak and are certainly not in a crisis or anything.

Bad news for Bayer Leverkusen is that Ballack broke his nose in the last match and is not going to feature for his team, so that is a relief for Valencia CF and a big negative for Bayer as they loose their most influential midfielder. Since Bayer met Valencia CF they lost a game to Schalke and won their last match against Freiburg.

Bayer Leverkisen squad: to be announced...

Technical details Valencia CF (probable setups):
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Diego; Bruno, Rami, Ruiz, Mathieu; Banega, Topal; Pablo, Jonas, Feghuoli; Soldado.
Tactics: ?

Technical details Bayer Leverkusen (probable setups):
Formation: ?
Line-up: Leno; Kadlec, Reinartz, Castro, Schwaab; Sam, Renato, Balitsch, Bender; Schurrle, Derdiyok.
Tactics: ?

Result prediction:
Valencia CF 2-1 Bayer Leverkusen
If we play at 100% and there aren't any defensive mistakes we should win this game. With Ballack injured Valencia should have an easier time dealing with Bayer's midfield.

Valencia CF 3-1 Getafe CF - Player Ratings

2011-10-30T10:15:00.001+01:00

Guaita 6 - Made few easy saves, confident every time he was called on.
Miguel 6 - Made a mess for the Getafe goal, but improved later on and went on to made few crucial interceptions.
Rami 6 - Not his best match, but did good overall.
Ruiz 6 - Same as Rami, did not have too much to deal with though.
Mathieu 6.5 - Had few defensive mistakes, but did very well going forward though and started few of the attacks.
Albelda 6 - Had few blocks in the middle and provided some passing outlet, nothing of note though.
Banega 7.5 - At the heart of every Valencia attack. Was involved in all of the goals and provided the assist for the third goal. Made few smaller mistakes, but overall a great match for Banega.
Feghuoli 7.5 - Scored two goals and was a decent attack threat overall. Good game by Feghuoli.
Jonas 6.5 - Great link up play, good movement and was generally a threat to Getafe. Provided the assist to the second goal.
Pablo 6 - Involved in most of the attacks and provided few good passes, but nothing great.
Soldado 5.5 - Tried to get into dangerous positions and make something of the few balls he got, but generally ineffective.
Subs:
Alba 5.5 - Linked up 2-3 times with Mathieu and provided some speed on the flank, failed to constantly threaten Getafe and seemed to fall back to left back later and let Mathieu go forward more.
Aduriz 6 - Came in and scored a goal and it was a great goal, well timed run and great composure to push it into the net.
Piatti N/A - Not enough time

Overall this was a good match with some good attacking moves, though Banega lacks a passing partner. In Albelda you have a good cover and a simple passer, but there needs to be someone else who can also make the occasional through passes and control play.

As far as the attack I think Emery should play Aduriz more, he just showed that he can be more dangerous than Soldado at time, especially when Soldado is out of form. Although I wouldn't mind seeing Soldado and Aduriz starting as a duo against weaker teams and see how it goes, as last season we had very good games with both of them on the field.

Real Zaragoza 0-1 Valencia CF - player ratings

2011-10-27T09:14:00.002+02:00

Guaita 6 - Had a very quiet match with no saves apart from few punches.
Bruno 7 - Good defending and decent in attack, managed to provide a brilliant assist for the goal.
Dealbert 7 - Great defending and is showing that he can be relied upon when needed. Made few crucial interceptions and blocks.
Ruiz 6.5 - The weaker of the defending duo and while he was good on average he did make small mistakes.
Alba 7 - Made few mistakes early on in the first half, for example had two back-passes that went to Zaragoza and didn't do much it attack. Improved in the second half as he was put as a winger and made few good runs and scored the only goal.
Topal 6 - Made two great interceptions stopping Zaragoza's attack and provided some nice passes at times, but very limited in his contribution.
Banega 7 - Great performance with few mistakes, though what he has going for him is that everyone knows he's our main player and is immediately pressured. Still did great though and all play started from him.
Piatti 5.5 - Put on the right side, but it didn't have any positive effect. He was still very limited and couldn't really do anything even though he tried really hard as always.
Parejo 5.5 - Had few touches here and there and provided some outlet to pass to, but not much else. Needs to really step us his game and step it up soon.
Feghuoli 7 - The most active member of the team, run as if there is no tomorrow and was everywhere on the field left, right, attack, defense, midfield, everywhere. Had some good passes too and some slick one-two play with Soldado and others.
Soldado 6 - Was involved in some of the actions and link-up play and that brings him points, but he needs to score its pure and simple and should be in more dangerous positions and be able to score in any way.
Subs:
Mathieu 5.5 - Did well enough defensively and had one or two forward runs, but did not contribute too much.
Jonas 6 - Good showing as he immediately started linking up play and provided some much needed attacking depth, but did not threaten the goal directly.
Aduriz N/A - Not enough time

Lucky win as we were destined to get a draw with no shots on goal in the first half and no real chances in the second half. That Bruno assist was one off and I wouldn't expect him to get another one even in a million years.

So yeah even though we won it was a lucky win and it could have easily resulted in a draw, but luck was on our side this time. This doesn't mean that we are good to go though, as our attacking play is really lacking and we either can't score the chances we create or don't create any chances other times.

I'd like to suggest to Emery who probably has a translator reading him my blog to try and play Tino Costa as an attacking midfielder. That is his actual position and even though he played good last season as a CM, I think this season we should play him AM and I'm sure we are going to have a lot more chances going on, as well as someone that can shoot from far.

I also think Emery should play some of these "weaker" teams with two attackers in a 4-4-2 position and put Aduriz and Soldado in. I mean do you remember last season how many times the 4-4-2 formation with the Aduriz-Soldado duo has saved us from defeat? So why play Jonas so much with mixed results and not start Aduriz and Soldado together. Plus they complement each other very well as one is a more direct poacher type attacker and the other is a more powerful header attacker.

Real Zaragoza vs Valencia CF - Match Preview

2011-10-25T06:23:00.002+02:00

Real Zaragoza vs Valencia CF

Stadium: La Romareda

26th October, 2011; 20:00CET

10th matchday, La Liga

Expected Attendance: 28.000

Coaches: Javier Aguirre and Unai Emery

Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. is a Spanish association football team from Zaragoza in Spain. Founded on 18 March 1932, Real Zaragoza have spent the majority of their 78 year history in the Spanish top-flight. Real Zaragoza are Spain's 9th highest ranked team in overall league points. They are ranked 6th overall for cup wins with 6 victories in the Copa del Rey, and also have a UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, an Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (forerunner to the UEFA Cup/Europa League), and a Spanish Supercup.

Real Zaragoza have had a poor start to the season with two losses, two draws and only one win, but they've also had some tough opponents like Real Betis who started magnificently, Malaga who are considered top 4 contenders this season with their big spending in the summer transfer window and have drawn with Villarreal, who although are having a bad time themselves are still a great team.

Zaragoza are currently 14th place on the table with only 9 points and they have the worst defensive record currently so if Valencia CF can't beat the team with the worst defensive record currently with 16 conceded goals its not saying too well about our strength. While their defense is atrocious and worst in the league right now, their attack is actually decent and floats with the rest of the teams.

Real Zaragoza squad: to be announced...

Valencia CF on the other hand are coming to this match after another failure on the weekend in which we only managed a draw and this was basically a rescued draw in the last minutes after Bilbao led for much of the second half. Our attack has been pretty bad this season and it seems like the departure of Mata is really hurting Valencia as right now there is yet to be someone who can step it up on the left wing and provide some much needed attacking threat. Currently the best we have is Mathieu and the fact that he is a left back, but playing as left wing speaks of the limited options Valencia has. Some of our summer purchases haven't turned out as hoped and whether its because they haven't had the time to settle in and/or gel or other it doesn't make the slightest difference as our results would any way still be bad.

The fact that Soldado has also been out of form and unable to score from few meters with an open net is also worrying, with Jonas being of similar form and Aduriz has just not had a full start to show himself and when he's been introduced as a substitution has failed to impress. We also have Paco in the wings, but knowing Emery the chances of him actually starting a match is slim to none.

Valencia also has some bad news from the doctors as Canales will be out at least 3 months with his current injury and this is if he doesn't undergo surgery, but chances are he is going to need surgery and is going to be out for at least 6 months, essentially making the season over for him. With Maduro also out for the next 3 months our options are quite reduced, although we still have depth and maybe this will allow Parejo to get more chances in his preferred position and that is attacking midfielder and not central midfielder where Emery has played him.

Valencia CF squad:

Goalkeepers: Guaita, Diego Alves.
Defenders: Barragán, Víctor Ruiz, Dealbert, Mathieu, Jordi Alba.
Midfielders: Albelda, Topal, Tino Costa, Parejo, Éver, Piatti, Pablo Hernández, Féghouli.
Attackers: Jonas, Soldado, Adúriz.

Technical Details Real Zaragoza (probable setups):
Formation: ?
Line-up: Jimenez; Meira, P. Da Silva, Paredes, Mateos; Ponzio, Barrera, Juarez, Postiga; Luis Garcia, Lafita.
Tactics: Low defensive line, park the bus, crosses and counter attacks.

Technical details Valencia CF (probable setups):
Formation: 4-4-2
Line-up: Guaita; Bruno, ~~Costa~~ Dealbert, Ruiz, Alba; Pablo, Banega, Albelda, Piatti; Jonas, Soldado.
Tactics: High defensive line, all round pressure, mostly flank attacks, mixed passing.

Result prediction:
Real Zaragoza 1-3 Valencia CF
Zaragoza defense is the worst in La Liga and even though our attack is really ineffective right now we should have enough quality to put few in their net. Our defense is going to be shaky with Costa in once again and its likely we are going to concede one goal.

Valencia CF 1-1 Athletic Bilbao - player ratings

2011-10-24T09:05:00.001+02:00

Guaita 6 - Made two great saves in the first half and was confident when coming forward punching. Let down by the defense for the goal.
Miguel 5 - Mixed bag as he and Costa failed to react to clear the ball early on which could resulted in goal, but Guaita saves two times and was after called offside. Had one more blunder in the second half.
Costa 4 - What a bad performance from Costa. Miscommunication with Miguel for the chance and goal that was ruled offside and again miscommunication with Ruiz for the goal. Lost Llorente twice in dangerous positions and couldn't really cope with the attacker.
Ruiz 6 - Cleared up for Costa so many times, but with Costa on his side our defense looked vulnerable.
Mathieu 6.5 - Did really well in the first half with few attacks one after another and generally did well in defense.
Topal 6 - Wasn't good in the first half, he was slow to react and failed to link up well with Banega, but improved in the second half and provided a good performance.
Banega 7 - Had a good first half with few great through passes, but failed to control the game as he was put under pressure, a lot better in the second half though and provided the assist to Soldado for the goal.
Feghuoli 6 - Really fought for every ball and covered every position, but wasn't the threat on the flank that Emery would have hoped him to be. Provided good support, but largely ineffective.
Canales 5 - Had a good chance in the 4-5 minute which he missed from a very close range, complained to injury from the start and guess it weighted down on him hard as he failed to do anything.
Jonas 6.5 - Had a good showing tonight with few tries and especially the try in the first half with an empty goal, was a bit unlucky there. Did well overall, but needs to start scoring himself and be more of a threat.
Soldado 6 - Way out of form and even though he scored didn't look particularly good.
Subs:
Piatti 6 - Replaced Canales in the 36th minute and did better, but lacks the cutting edge and failed to threaten Bilbao's goal.
Pablo 4 - All he did was enable Bilbao to score. Would have been better if he didn't come on. I feel like Pablo is once again in one of his slumps and hopefully this time it lasts shorter and not two months like last season.
Aduriz N/A - Was very active on the field and tried hard, but ultimately didn't add anything to the attack that Jonas didn't provide.

I think we were unfortunate in this match and for that matter against Mallorca as well. We also had a penalty rejected twice and things would have been different in we were awarded a penalty. I think maybe Emery should think playing Tino or Parejo in the attacking midfield role that Canales is currently playing, because so far I've only seen really one great game by Canales and in all the others he has been rather mediocre.

As we know Tino Costa and Parejo are both attacking midfielders and actually not central midfielders, so I think Emery should try with one of them being behind the striker.

We also lack the depth on the wings and this is where Mata came in last season. Right now we are basically forced to play Mathieu as left wing, because he is our best winger.

Valencia CF vs Athletic Bilbao - Match Preview

2011-10-23T10:38:00.002+02:00

Valencia CF vs Athletic Bilbao

Stadium: Mestalla

23 October, 2011; 20:00CET

9th matchday, La Liga

Expected Attendance: 36.000

Coaches: Unai Emery and Marcelo Biesla

So Valencia CF is in sort of a mini crisis right now, with the last two matches now going the way we would have liked them to go. This is a chance for Valencia CF to go back on track and start winning again and especially important will be how goof our attack will be.

Valencia CF as I've mentioned in the opening has not done very well in the last two matches with stalling a little bit in La Liga and having lower chances to go through the Champions league group stages, although not impossible.

Valencia CF will be without central defender Adil Rami for the first time this season after he was send off in the last match for insulting the referee and he is suspended for two matches. Out of this match will also be Albelda who is probably a little bit fatigued after playing few matches in a row without rest.

Valencia CF is currently in fifth position on the table with 14 points from 7 matches and with a win tonight we will go to either third or fourth depending on Levante's result.

Right now the biggest problem for Valencia CF is the inability to score and other time the inability to create chances. So its a weird problem because when the team creates a ton of chances no one seems able to score and then other times we just plain don't create any chances. So right now Emery has had enough time to work with the squad and hopefully some of the attacking issues will be resolved.

Valencia CF squad:

Goalkeepers: Guaita, Diego Alves.
Defenders: Miguel, Bruno, Ricardo Costa, Víctor Ruiz, Jordi Alba, Mathieu.
Midfielders: Topal, Tino Costa, Éver, Pablo, Feghouli, Piatti.
Forwards: Jonas, Canales, Adúriz, Soldado.

Athletic Bilbao is an association football club from Bilbao in Biscay, Spain. The club has played in the Primera División of La Liga since its start in 1928. They have won La Liga on eight occasions. In the historical classification of La Liga Athletic Bilbao are in 4th place and one of only three clubs which have never been relegated from La Liga (the others being Real Madrid and Barcelona). The club also has a women's team, which has won four championships in the Spanish Superliga.

Athletic Bilbao had quite the terrible start to the season under their new coach as they tried to play a different football than what they played last season and went from mostly long balls and crosses with strong physical play to a more finesse, short passing style of play this season. The results so far tell a bad story, although Bilbao have been on the upraise in their last two matches having won against Osasuna and Sociedad.

Athletico Bilbao squad: to be announced...

Result Prediction:

Valencia CF 2-1 Athletic Bilbao

I feel like we are going to score more than one goal for a change and this season we play better at home anyways, so I expect a 2-0 or 2-1 win, probably 2-1 because I won't trust our defense that much with Ricardo Costa and Ruiz.

Interview with Allen from the Villarreal USA website

2011-10-20T08:17:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone, I've interviewed Allen Dodson from www.villarrealusa.com and he is a Villarreal supporter since 2005 and writes all kinds of stuff on the website from news to editorials. Go check them out for Villarreal news and articles.

• How long have you been a supporter of Villarreal and what prompted you to become one?
I started following the club in about 2005--they were just starting to make an impact and with players like Riquelme and Forlan they were enjoyable to watch. Plus I grew up a Liverpool fan and hated Arsenal, so when they beat Everton and then played Arsenal in the CL semis I had reason to pay attention to them!

• Are you a fan of any other clubs?
Yes, Port Vale and Shrewsbury Town, in that order.

• How long have you been writing about Villarreal?
Since about a year ago when I joined the Villarreal USA team.

• Villarreal season so far has been pretty bad, why do you think this is?
Three reasons: first, the sale of Santi Cazorla really affected everyone mentally, fans and players. Secondly, we had too many moves late in the transfer window. Between that and international duty taking away some players, this team just hasn’t played together enough. Third: injuries. Nilmar only had one game where looked OK and now has had surgery, Angel’s recovery from knee surgery has been slower than expected, and Gonzalo is still regaining form after his broken leg.

• Do you think Villarreal can bounce back and finish in the top four?
Yes, but it will be difficult. We’ll need to get hot and go on a good run!

• Who would you say is Villarreal’s best player and biggest flop so far?
Best players have been Giuseppe Rossi, who has worked his tail off but hasn’t had the support around him he needs, and Bruno Soriano, probably the most underrated player in La Liga.
Biggest flops: Cristian Zapata sometimes has looked fine, but other times he has just been horrible. I haven’t been impressed with the return on that money yet. Otherwise, it’s hard to point fingers at particular players--I just think almost everyone can step it up from what they’ve shown so far.

•Who is going to be Villarreal’s key man this season?
If I have to pick one, I’d say de Guzman, because he, Cani and Borja Valero are going to have to control midfield and produce opportunities for us to score.

• For all those unfamiliar with Villarreal, what would you say are the strengths and weaknesses of your team?
Our strengths are the duo of Rossi and Nilmar (when he’s healthy), the insight and creativity of our midfielders, especially Borja Valero, and our style of attacking play. Diego Lopez is an excellent goalkeeper as well.

• Do you support a new deal for TV money spreading and why do you think it’s so hard for all the clubs to come to an understanding?
I ABSOLUTELY support a new deal for TV sharing. People are kidding themselves if they think the league is become more competitive unless TV moneys are more equitably distributed. It’s hard to come to an agreement because Barcelona and Real Madrid are used to getting their way and seem to have the votes of many of the smaller teams in their pocket. They pretty much control the playing field.

• Any young players to watch out for that could be on a “break-out year”?
Mateo Musacchio has been playing so much for us, it’s hard to remember he’s still very young. Wakaso Mubarak is someone to watch for--he’s tremendously exciting even though he doesn’t know what he’s going to do a lot of the time--he’s very quick but also quite raw. And Hernán Perez, who was promoted to the first team this year and plays on Paraguay’s national squad, is one to watch as well. He is a very polished attacking midfielder with good instincts and pace.

• Can Villarreal get out of the Champions’ League group stage with the opponents they have and if so how far do you think Villarreal will go and what about the Spanish cup?
I think the Champions League draw really took the wind out of our sails (if submarines had sails). I said when the draw happened I thought getting out of this group would be as great an achievement as making the semifinals when we did that, and I still feel that way. I don’t think we will get out of this group, no. Not only is it an incredibly strong group, they’re teams that we don’t match up well with.
As for the Spanish cup, how we do in the CL (and whether we drop into the Europa League) will affect things, as well as the draw. We’ve never done well in the Copa, so maybe this is our year.

• Obviously this is Valencia blog, and we have to ask: How far do you think Valencia will go? Is it feasible to think that Emery’s team could win the Spanish championship?
No. I say that not because Valencia isn’t a good team, which it is, but the big two will run away with the league again. I think Los Che will finish third again, assuring CL football next year.

• Who do you think will win the Champions League and Europa League this season?
I’m gonna pick Bayern Munich to win the Champions League. It just seems like it might be their time.
As for the Europa League, I’m going to wave the Spanish flag. I think Athletic or Atleti will make the final, and so might either of our clubs (Valencia and Villarreal) if they drop into it from the CL.

I'd like to thank Allen for taking the time to answer my questions, really apreciate it and once again you can find Allen articles about Villarreal on www.villarrealusa.com

Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 Valencia CF - Match Report

2011-10-19T23:38:00.001+02:00

Bayer Leverkusen 0-1 Valencia CF

Goals: Jonas, Schurrle, Sam

Assists: Soldado, Kadlec

Possesion: 40%-60%

Attempts on target: 7-7

Attempts off target: 3-4

The match started in a calm tempo with Valencia CF being the more dominant side and slowly increasing the tempo and attacks on Bayer Leverkusen's goal.

The first chance would come in the 10th minute with Pablo putting a dangerous cross in the Germans penalty area that just misses Soldado, who still manages to get to the ball and passes to Jonas, but his shot was blocked.

Just few minutes later Soldado with a nice dribble after a Banega pass, but he was fouled and brought down, but the referee waved play on. Just a minute later Valencia CF did get a free kick after I believe Mathieu was fouled. Banega took it and passed the ball to Jonas who in turn passed in to the lonely Pablo in front of goal, but Pablo was too slow to reach and the ball was kicked out of his legs and the danger was cleared.

17th minute Pablo once again founds himself in a dangerous position after a Soldado cross from the right, but Pablo couldn't quite reach the ball. 3 minutes later the ball comes to Soldado after a rebound from a shot from I think it was Jonas, but Soldado managed to miss an empty goal from like 5-6 meters and hit the post.

Luckilly enough Valencia CF would find the back of the net just minutes later after a forced error by a Bayer defender who was under pressure from Mathieu gifted the ball to Soldado who then crossed in to the lonely Jonas in front of goal and this one put the ball in the net, no mistakes.

31st minute Soldado starts a counter attack by stealing a ball from the Bayer midfield, Soldado goes close to the penalty area and passed the ball to Jonas and he shoots, but the goalkeeper punches the ball, only for the rebound to come to Pablo, but he shoots straight in the goalkeeper.

This is the point I start worrying that Bayer would punish us for so many missed chances and I was almost right when in the 38th minute Diego Alves makes two brilliant saves in the span of a minute. First save was from a brilliant and powerful lob and the second time a reflex save after a shot from just few meters after a corner kick.

Bayer Leverkusen pushed hard, but luckily we managed to hold in the first hald in the closing several minutes.

The second half started with Bayer really pushing forward and putting Valencia under pressure as they searched for a goal. And their pressure would pay off in the 52nd minute as Bayer Leverkusen scores a goal with a cross from the left that wasn't cleared properly by Miguel and no one standing in Schurle's way he was able to easily score.

Just 3 minutes later Bayer would score again this time it was Sam from an counter attack. He was basically clear on goal on the left side and slotted the ball in the far right corner of the net with no chance for Diago to save it.

After this Valencia CF started playing again and started winning back possession slowly and gained some initiative, but things were moving slowly so Emery made few attacking substitutions to try and put some urgency into our attack.

It wasn't until the 72nd minute when Valencia had a decent chance after Banega released Soldado on goal with a great through pass, but Soldado once again failed to score.

Then in the 88th minute Jonas had a try, but his shot went straight into the hands of the goalkeeper.Valencia couldn't muster anything in the closing minutes and it was actually Bayer that had the last chance.

In retrospect I don't know what went wrong, but I've noticed several times this season the whole team looses focus and ability for like 10-15 minutes from the 50th to the 60-6th minute. We've seen it against Chelsea, Genk, Sevilla, etc...

Technical Details:
Bayer Leverkusen (2): Leno; Castro, Toprak, Reinartz (Friedrich, 46), Kadlec; Rolfes, Bender; Ballack; Sam (Schwaab, 90), Schürrle; Kiessling (Derdiyok, 80).

Valencia CF (1): Diego Alves; Miguel, Rami, Victor Ruiz, Alba (Canales, 65); Albelda (Aduriz, 82), Banega, Pablo Hernández (Reguli, 65), Matthieu; Soldado y Jonas,

Goals: 0-1: min.26, Jonas, 1-1: min 52, Schürrle, 2-1: min 56, Sam.

Player Ratings:
Diego 7.5 (MotM) - Once again man of the match. Had two brilliant saves and few more as well, basically keeping the team into the game so many times.
Miguel 6 - Had an okay match, should have cleared better for the first goal, but it was an owkward thing as that is where Albelda should have been, but he was covering the right flank in the first place, so there was no man where Miguel cleared. Still should take most of the responsibility for that goal.
Rami 6.5 - Best of the defenders, had several interventions and always in good positions.
Ruiz 6 - Did well generally, but exposed for the second goal and couldn't catch up to Sam.
Alba 6 - Not a particularly attacking display, but the only time he went attacking the goal from his flank came.
Pablo 6 - Very active in most of the first half and found himself in good scoring opportunities, but missed some good chances that should have been goals. Went missing in the second half though.
Albelda 5.5 - Made few tackles to stop Bayer from mounting attacks, but didn't provide any passing and generally went out of the way and didn't want to recieve the ball.
Banega 6 - So so performance. When given space he was very dangerous, but when under pressure made quite few mistakes and gave the ball away cheaply. Still provided the only passing outlay in the middle.
Mathieu 6 - Decent display as he was the reason Valencia scored after he forced the Bayer defender to error and give the ball to Soldado. Not a big contribution otherwise.
Jonas 6.5 - Was quite the attacking threat tonight, scored a goal and had few shots on goal and tries.
Soldado 6.5 - Provided the assist to Jonas for the goal and made few good passes towards Pablo and Jonas that weren't converted. Found himself in good positions, but what is the point when he missed them all and a sitter from just 5 meters.
Subs:
Canales 5 - Didn't do anything of note. Few touches and runs, but that's about it.
Feghuoli 5.5 - More involved than Canales, but failed to do anything of note.
Aduriz N/A - Not enough time.

Bayer 04 Leverkusen vs Valencia CF Match Preview

2011-10-18T18:22:00.002+02:00

Bayer Leverkusen vs Valencia CF

Stadium: BayArena

19 October 2011; 20:45CET

3rd fixture champions league

Expected attendance: 30.000

Coaches: Robit Dutt and Unai Emery

The third fixtures of the Champions League are upon us and on the second day Bayer Leverkusen will welcome Valencia CF at the BayArena for a footballing spectacle, well okay maybe not quite, but this is going to be a very interesting match nonetheless as this is likely going to be the deciding match of who stays in the champions league and who goes to the Europa League.

This is a must win match for both clubs and a loss here will probably mean going down to the Europa League or worse yet maybe even finishing last in the group. A draw will not serve both clubs and will just extend the lock down in the group for one more fixture. So expect both team to go in it to win it.

Bayer 04 Leverkusen is a recent success story in German football, something similar to Villarreal in Spanish football. After a near disaster in 1996 when the club faced a relegation battle, Bayer Leverkusen established itself as a powerful side, offering a technically pleasing offensive style of play under new coach Christoph Daum, who was also helped by the signing of players such as Lúcio, Emerson, Zé Roberto, and Michael Ballack. Daum was later to be famously fired for a cocaine scandal that also cost him his ascent to the role of the national team coach.

With such players the club went on to a consecutive top 4 finishes in the Bundesliga and even challenged Bayern Munich and Borusia Dortmund back then for the title. Of course Bayern Munich strategy was and still is to purchase the best players in the Bundesliga from other clubs and that's what they did, taking Ballack and Ze Roberto from Bayer Leverkusen and had a terrible season, only for the team to bounce back next season and finish third place. From 2005 up to last year the team was kind of in the background of other teams and not really able to mount any sort of offensive towards the top.

Things changed last season when they finished second to Borusia Dortmund with the help of players like Arturo Vidal and the returning Michael Ballack in 2010/11.

This season though with their best player Arturo Vidal gone they are not doing quite so good and are currently in 8th position on the table with 14 points. So far their biggest problem seems to be their defense that has been leaking goals and this is of course chance for Valencia to get away with the victory even with our weaker attack in recent weeks.

Bayer Leverkusen squad: to be announced...

Valencia CF on the other hand has had quite the miserable week with a draw against Mallorca. But what is more worrisome than the result itself which was only achieved by Mallorca through a late controversial penalty is the way Valencia CF played. The team lacked cohesion, teamwork, vision and drive. It was like they were just random people put on a field together and run like headless chickens all over the pitch. The only good news is that our defense is still solid(hit in wood 3 times) and I'm expecting us to ride on its back for tonight's match. Maybe the team will surprise me and come out really strong and powerful, we also have Banega returning so that is good news, but somehow I'm loosing confidence that we can win this match.

Unai Emery has taken all the players with him for the trip to Bayer Leverkusen. The only player who is going to stay behind in Maduro who's season is almost over. He will be out for at least four months and that means the earliest he can hope to play is March when he is to regain some fitness.

Valencia CF squad:

Goalkeepers: Guaita, Diego Alves, Cristiano.
Defenders: Miguel, Barragán, Bruno, Víctor Ruiz, Ricardo Costa, Rami, Dealbert, Mathieu, Jordi Alba.
Midfielders: Albelda, Topal, Éver, Parejo, Tino Costa, Feghouli, Pablo, Piatti, Canales.
Forwards: Jonas, Aduriz and Soldado.

Technical details Bayer Leverkusen (probable setups):
Formation: 4-4-2
Line-up: Leno; Kadlec, Reinartz, Castro, Schwaab; Sam, Ballack, Balitsch, Bender; Keibling, Derdiyok.
Tactics: ?

Technical details Valencia CF (probable setups):
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Diego; Miguel, Rami, Ruiz, Mathieu; Banega, Topal; Pablo, Canales, Feghuoli; Soldado.
Tactics: ?

Result prediction:
Bayer 04 Leverkusen 1-1 Valencia CF
Bayer are decent in attack and they are likely to cause us problems at the back, but their defense has so far in the season been quite poor and so this is shaping up to be a draw with Valencia CF attack too weak to fully exploit Bayer defensive weakness and Valencia CF defense being too good for Bayer attack to manage to score more than one goal.

RCD Mallorca 1-1 Valencia CF - Player Ratings

2011-10-15T20:12:00.002+02:00

Guaita 6 - Wasn't really threatened, but was confident coming out and punching the ball out. Unfortunately didn't guess the side the penalty was shot and not his fault.
Bruno 5.5 - Did well in defense, but could not help out in attack and lost the ball too few many times in dangerous positions.
Rami 7 - Did well in defense and scored a goal. Wasn't particularity troubled at any time.
Ruiz 6.5 - Same as Rami, did his job well and never really troubled.
Alba 6.5 - Wasn't very convincing in defense especially when run at directly and Chori did get the better of him few times, but he did good going forward and helped out quite a bit in attack.
Albelda 6 - Good cover in the midfield and helped out immensely in defense, but lacks any passing vision.
Parejo 5.5 - Very ineffectual with lots of mistakes. Tried hard and had some nice crosses, but just didn't deliver too much.
Pablo 5.5 - One of the worst performances from Pablo this season. He did absolutely nothing. Couldn't tie up even two passes, his dribbling was way off and just a very poor match overall from Pablo.
Canales 5.5 - Same as Pablo. Was good in the first half with few nice touches, but completely gone in the second half.
Piatti 5.5 - Tried very hard on the left, but he just can't seem to dribble past anyone and his passes lack precision and creativity.
Soldado 6 - Worked hard and while he himself wasn't particularity threatening he set up few nice passes to his team mates. He lacked service all match long.
Subs:
Feghuoli 5.5 - A lot more dangerous than Piatti and the rest of the attack, but did not have enough time to influence the match and apart from few nice passes didn't have time to do more.
Topal N/A - Made one mistake when he came over and that indirectly set in motion the events that would lead to the penalty call. Did not play with his hands though and the referee is blind or payed off.
Aduriz N/A - Not enough time.

Unai Emery 6 - Decided to rest Banega, but looking from this point in time it was a mistake. Parejo wasn't able to influence the game and when Mallorca opened up and started attacking Valencia lost all possession.
I feel like Emery wasn't at fault for the result, as all players played pretty bad overall.

Referee -10 - If you want to destroy someone wait till the 92nd minute and blow the whistle for an unexisting penalty with no chance for the team to come back.

RCD Mallorca vs Valencia CF - Match Preview

2011-10-14T14:43:00.002+02:00

RCD Mallorca vs Valencia CF

Stadium: Iberostar

15 October 2011; 18:00CET
8th matchday, La Liga

Expected attendance: 20.000

Coaches: Joaquín Caparrós and Unai Emery

The international fixtures are over and club football is about to start again with Valencia CF traveling to the town of Palma, Majorca at the Iberostar stadium to face the home team RCD Mallorca.

The last match for Valencia CF was against Granada and resulted in a small win for us, courtesy of a Canales goal in the first half. Since then we've had few players go on international duty with their countries. Jordi Alba actually got his first call up to the team and also debuted as starter and played great, providing an assist to Silva for the first goal and defending calmly and easily. Other players that were on international duty were Ever Banega, Rami, Mathieu, Ricardo Costa, Maduro, Pereira and Jonas. Unfortunately Maduro got injured in training and recently had an operation and would be out for at least 4 months.

As far as Mallorca goes I think only Chori Castro was called up, as he's a regular in Uruguay since 2005, Dudu Aouate as well and maybe Pablo as well, but don't take my word for it on this one.

RCD Mallorca is the oldest club in the Balearic Islands, Mallorca was originally founded in 1916 by Adolfo Vázquez, a republican engineer, who named the club Junta Directiva del Alfonso XIII FBC after the then Spanish king.

RCD Mallorca has had a mixed start so far with 3 loses in the first three matches, but it has come around the last two matches and won against Real Sociedad and drew their last game with Osasuna away from home. Right now they are 9th position on the table and facing Valencia.

RCD Mallorca finished 6th in 2010 and was supposed to play in the Europe League, but due to the poor financial situation at the club, UEFA decided on 22 July 2010 against granting Mallorca the licence to play in the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League.

RCD Mallorca fired Michael Laudrup and brought in new coach Joaquin Caparros who is a very experienced and great coach that led clubs like Villarreal and most importantly Sevilla for 5 years achieving quite the success and setting up the team for great things in the future with transferring players like Jose Antonio Reyes and Sergio Ramos from the B team to the first team and earlier he also discovered someone by the name of Marchena. With the signings of Júlio Baptista, Adriano, Daniel Alves and Renato he made a team to be reckoned with, but of course the Sevilla leadership wasn't looking to win titles, but to make profits and one after another sold his best players like Dani Alves and Sergio Ramos to the current top two clubs.

Anyways he is a very experienced coach and will deeply analyze Valencia's play and try and counter us directly. Mallorca players would also not be short of motivation for this match and will likely go 110% percent ready and try to get a positive result.

RCD Mallorca squad: to be announced...

Valencia CF on the other hand is fifth on the table with 13th points, same as Real Madrid and Malaga and only one point less than Barcelona and Levante who are top two in the table. Even though Levante are playing really good right now I'm expecting them to fizzle out in the next three or four fixtures, while on the other hand I'm expecting Sevilla and Atletico Madrid to start climbing and possibly threatening out position.

This week though we have an easy fixture considering and we should be looking to take three points when we visit Mallorca. We must take these easier games so that if we fail against tougher or equal opposition we have sort of safety cushion.

The last two weeks were for national football and Unai Emery had ample time to work with the team on the shortcomings, like the attack for example and I'd expect our goalscoring to be more proficient and improved.

Most players are available to the coach except for Hedwiges Maduro who got injured in training with the national team and Tino Costa who just got injured in training and the extent of his injury will be known at a later date. David Albelda and Mehmet Topal are fully fit now though and ready to play.

Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Guaita, Diego Alves
Defenders: Barragán, Bruno, Víctor Ruiz, Rami, Dealbert, Jordi Alba, Mathieu
Midfielders: Albelda, Mehmet Topal, Parejo, Feghouli, Pablo Hernández, Piatti, Canales
Forwards: Jonas, Soldado, Aduriz.

Technical Details Valencia CF (probable setups):
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Guaita; Barragan, Rami, Ruiz, Mathieu; Albelda, Parejo; Feghuoli, Canales, Pablo; Soldado.
Tactics: High defensive line, all round pressure, interchangeable attacking trio, mixed passing.

Technical Details RCD Mallorca (probable setups):
Formation: 4-4-2
Line-up: Aouate; Zuiverloon, Ramis, Caceres, Chico; Pereira, Marti, Pina, Victor; Alfaro, Nsue.
Tactics: Low defensive line, park the bus, crosses and counter attacks.

Result Prediction:
RCD Mallorca 0-2 Valencia CF
RCD Mallorca just changed coaches two weeks ago and even though they have done decent in their last two matches they probably still are ways off tactically and individually so a team like Valencia CF should and must take advantage of that. I'd expect Emery to have worked with the team in attacking moves and tactics and I expect improvement in that area. Our defense is also pretty good, so I don't expect any leaks there.

Valencia CF players on international duty

2011-10-12T14:03:00.002+02:00

Spain 3-1 Scotland; Jordi Alba
Jordi Alba had his debut match for Spain and he didn't disappoint. Immediately he grew comfortable and started playing to his potential setting up David Silva for the first goal. He continued to bombard forward and linked up well with former Valencia CF players Villa and Silva on the left.

In fact Jordi Alba outdid Sergio Ramos who played on the right and I think this just earned him a call up for the Euro 2012 tournament.

France 1-1 Bosnia&Hercegovina; Adil Rami, Jeremy Mathieu
Adil Rami was a rather poor match against Bosnia&Hercegovina as he allowed Edin Dzeko to score the opening goal. He did marshal everyone in the air, but this wasn't his best performance in a French shirt.

Jeremy Mathieu did not have luck once again and will wait for a other time to try and get into the French team. Right now it doesn't seen as Blanc will take him to EURO 2012.

Argentina 0-1 Venezuela; Ever Banega
Ever Banega didn't start the match, but was put in rather quickly in it after Argentina went down 1-0 to Venezuela. Surprisingly though he was unable to steer the match in favor of Argentina, but its hardly his fault as the whole team before him was performing terribly.

Turkey 1-0 Azerbaijan; Mehmet Topal
Mehmet Topal started and played the full 90 minutes for the Turkish national team in their win over Azerbaijan.

Brazil 2-1 Mexico; Jonas Goncalves
Jonas once again played for the Brazilian team, but just like the last match he only had few minutes and wasn't able to do much.

You already know that Hedwiges Maduro is injured and Ricardo Costa did not feature for Portugal once more, just showing that Portuguese coach doesn't trust him, contrary to what Ricardo Costa claimed.

International players report

2011-10-09T12:24:00.003+02:00

Valencia CF had quite a few players representing their national teams, but only a few actually played.

Argentina 4-1 Chile; Ever Banega
Ever Banega who was one of the first players to get called up for his national team played in Argentinas win over Chile of 4-1. Ever Banega played for 72 minutes and did a good job in midfield, albeit unspectacular until he was substituted.

France 3-0 Albania ; Adil Rami, Jeremy Mathieu
Adil Rami also played for France and was their main defender with several defenders being injured that used to be in the first team.
Jeremy Mathieu on the other hand wasn't even on the bench for the French team, but could find himself easily on the bench and even playing as Abidal is still not injury free, Adil Rami also injured himself and even Patrice Evra got injured and removed at half time.

Brazil 1-0 Costa Rica; Jonas Goncalves
Jonas managed to play for his national team, but only for a few minutes in the closing stages of the match and could not do anything in the time he had. At least he played a little bit.

Ricardo Costa, Cristian Pereira for Portugal and U-21 respectively did not play and Costa wasn't even on the bench. Jordi Alba also watched from the stands and did not feature for Spain and Hedwiges Maduro got injured in training and so he obviously did not feature and should be actually coming home in few days.

Maduro bad mouthing comes back to haunt him

2011-10-07T15:27:00.003+02:00

Karma is a b****. Just about two weeks or so after Maduro came out public and said he wasn't getting enough playing time at Valencia CF and would consider leaving at winter, well he got injured in training with the Dutch national team and the extent of the injury is big and Maduro will spend at least two months recovering.

The MRI scan showed that its a deep fracture and this means that the earliest Maduro can start playing again is in 2012. This of course is bad news for Valencia as Topal is still injured, but he is expected to be back before the club fixtures begin.

Something tells me tough that staying home won't be so inconvenient for Maduro

Mathieu gets called to French national team

2011-10-04T17:30:00.001+02:00

Jeremy Mathieu has finally been called up by Blanc to join to French national representation. Jemery Mathieu has been performing great for over a year for Valencia CF and only after several injuries in the French ranks did Blanc call up on Mathieu. Right now Sagna, Ribery, Abidal, Matuidi, Benzema and Kevin Gameiro are injured.

This will be Mathieu's chance to become standard in the team and if he performs to his best ability there is no doubt that he will become standard.

The French team will play the qualifications for EURO 2012 against Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Alba and Paco contract renewals

2011-10-04T06:07:00.000+02:00

Valencia CF and Paco Alcacer started contract negotiations last week and are on good way to finalize the deal within few days that will have Paco Alcacer stay for at least 4 more years at Valencia CF.

Paco had gotten a lot of attention in the summer with his great performances in the Spanish youth teams and several teams and the likes of Barcelona have been closely following him and with his current buyout clause at only 9 million he could be poached right under our noses just like Isco was.

The new contract is set to improve his salary, add new bonuses and guarantee first team place next season, to which Valencia CF has agreed, but is negotiating the details of just how much money increase will Paco get and from the looks of it, not too much. He is going to be one of the lowest earners.

Valencia CF have also started contract negotiations with Jordi Alba with his contract set to expire in 2013, the team management want to renew his contract as soon as possible. Jordi Alba has been performing great this season, even starting over Mathieu and in other cases playing alongside Mathieu on the left side. His good performances haven't gotten unnoticed and he was called for the first side for the Spanish national team.

Valencia players with national teams

2011-10-03T07:31:00.003+02:00

Hey guys, I was planning on posting a match report and player ratings for the Granada match, but I got caught up with something and Valencia CF won so a tactical analysis is not worth it, play by play I forgot most of the stuff that happened so I decided best thing in not to write anything.

Anyways I'll be hopefully doing some interviews in the very near future with few persons from other blogs or websites about different teams so stay tuned for that, its going to be really interesting.

But anyways here are the players that received a call for their country:
Jordi Alba got a call up to the Spanish national team for the first time ever and this is a great opportunity for him and hopefully he grabs this chance and goes with it.

Hedwiges Maduro got a call to the Holland national team even though he hasn't played too much for Valencia CF and said that he might leave to get more playing time. Of course since then Emery has given him a little bit more playing time, certainly more than Tino Costa gets right now.

Ricardo Costa also got a call for his Portugal national team and is likely very happy, since he has only played 45 minutes so far for Valencia CF.

Sergio Canales also got a call for the Spanish under 21 team and this was to be expected, its just a continuation for him. Canales has so far played quite well for Valencia CF, with the last match being probably his best in a Valencia shirt.

Our new B team goalkeeper Cristiano Pereira got a call for the Portugal under 21 team, but he hasn't really impressed in the B team and apart from one really poor match he hasn't features as far as I know in the Mestalla first 11 team.

Last but not least Adil Rami has been called for the France national team. Adil Rami has been regular for the French national team and apart from not being called two times where Blanc was testing out different players he has been a regular.

Valencia CF vs Granada CF - Match Preview

2011-10-01T11:30:00.000+02:00

Valencia CF vs Granada CF

Stadium: Mestalla

October 1st ~~2nd~~ 2011; 20:00CET

7th matchday, La Liga

Expected Attendance: 36.000

Coaches: Unai Emery and Fabri Gonzalez

After going through one of the toughest weeks in the last 10 years through top teams like Barcelona, Sevilla and Chelsea and even getting good results considering Valencia CF will have a bit of a breather, but only for a moment, because Granada is a dangerous team and if the team goes overconfident or too relaxed it may just end up loosing.
Still though considering Valencia CF played 4 matches in 11 days, 3 of which top clubs, its great that we have a weaker opposition to play with and after this match we'd have a bit of a breather, although some players have been called to international duty so they are not going to get much rest after this.

Valencia CF as I've said is coming to this match after one of the most difficult 11 days in which it played against 4 teams, 3 of which top opposition. Against Barcelona it was a great match in which Valencia presented a big challenge and even had its chances to win, but in the end ultimately it was a good result for both teams. Then only few days later they traveled to Sevilla and just as history showed Valencia lost 1-0 and played quite bad. Valencia had chances to win as Sevilla were reduced to 9 men, but then Aritz Aduriz got himself send off and Banega missed a penalty. Last match was against Chelsea FC in the Champions League at the Mestalla and it ended in a 1-1 draw. Valencia scored from a penalty, while Diego Alves had an amazing match in which he saved 4-5 shots in the span of just 5 minutes and saved the team from loosing badly.

Valencia coach Unai Emery after the Chelsea match said that the attack must improve and I fully agree with him. Right now with Mata playing for Chelsea we lack a player on the wings that is going to play deeper, drop in the penalty area and help out the attacker by having people track him. Pablo isn't that guy and while he is very versatile, he is not naturally a deep winger, Piatti is also not a deep winger and with his poor passing and crossing is actually best suite for attack and not even on the wings. Feghuoli hasn't played much and from when he's played he seems more comfortable going deep, but its too early to say and Mathieu is a left back and lets not kid ourselves. He is fast and has good crossing ability, but in matches like Chelsea it shows he is not a winger.

So right now Emery will need to find either a player that can drop deeper or have some new tactics as to how the team can score goals, because right now apart from crosses and the rare through passes players don't have ideas on how to score. For example we only have one long range shooter in Tino and he still doesn't try to shoot from distance very much and players from the wings don't cut inside the penalty area and no one even dribbles outside the opposition area to get away past 1 or two players and create a chance. So right now Emery has to work around the problem or find a solution, but I'd expect us to be more dangerous against Granada either way.

Everyone except Topal is fully fit, the only absences for sure are Topal who is still recovering from injury and Aduriz who is serving his one match ban after the red card with Sevilla and Paco is looking likely to take his place as he was training with the first team this week.

Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Guaita, Diego Alves.
Defenders: Miguel, Barragán, Rami,Víctor Ruiz, Ricardo Costa, Mathieu.
Midfielders: Albelda, Maduro, Tino Costa, Éver, Parejo, Piatti, Pablo, Feghouli, Canales.
Forwards: Jonas, Paco Alcácer, Soldado.

Granada CF is based in the same named town Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. The club finished fifth in Segunda, but by winning the promotion playoffs they were promoted to La Liga.
The 2010/11 La Liga Play-Off took place in June 2011. This was Segunda's first season with purely promotion play-offs since 1986–87 and the first time play offs had been used for movement between the first and second tier since 1998-99. This new promotion phase (known as Promoción de ascenso) was introduced to determine the third team which promoted to 2011/12 La Liga. Teams placed between 3rd and 6th position, excluding reserve teams, took part in the promotion play-offs.

Granada basically earned the promotion with the help of mostly on-loan Udinese players last season. This season they got five Udinese players on-loan and 3 from Benfica.

So far Granada CF has had a mixed start with 3 losses, 1 draw and 1 win. Their win also comes against Villarreal so that either speaks that Granda are quite good or that Villarreal are quite weak this season. Granada is currently 17th position on the table with only four points out of five matches and will be looking to make their biggest progress by at least getting a point against Valencia and if anything they certainly won't need to be pumped up for this match against the big favorite Valencia.

Granada CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Roberto, Julio César
Defenders: Diakhaté, Íñigo López, Mainz, Nyom, Siqueira
Midfielders: Abel Gómez, Dani Benítez, Fran Rico, Martins, Mikel Rico, Yebda, Mollo, Jaime Romero
Forwards: Ighalo, Geijo, Uche

Technical Details Valencia CF (probable setups):
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Guaita; Barragan, Rami, Ruiz, Mathieu; Albelda, Tino; Feghuoli, Canales, Pablo; Soldado.
Tactics: High defensive line, all round pressure, interchangeable attacking trio, mixed passing.

Technical Details Granada CF (probable setups):
Formation: 4-4-2
Line-up: Roberto; Diakathe, Siqueria, Nyom, Mainz; Yebda, Hurtado, Geijo, Benitez; Uche, Jara.
Tactics: Low defensive line, park the bus, crosses and counter attacks.

Result Prediction:
Valencia CF 3-0
Valencia is playing at home, it has had decent amount of time to rest and prepare and considering Granada has been playing mostly bad, with the exception of their last match I fully expect Valencia to win comfortably. The only debatable thing is the scoreline, whether its going to be 2-0 or more.

Betting odds:

Valencia	1.38
draw	5.30
Granada	12.00

Some news

2011-09-30T03:11:00.001+02:00

Hey guys, finally some time with no matches and a little bit of downtime to take to write for other stuff instead of match previews and match reports.

Anyways I did an interview with barcablaugranes so check that out and see what I had to say mostly about Valencia, but also about Barcelona and the Champions League and Europa League.

Also if you want to know the top 10 football clubs of the world of the world go to www.footballclubrankings.com. It features a weekly ranking of the top 10 football clubs in the world.

This week Valencia play with Grenada, finally a weaker team and a chance for us to start winning again. I agree with Emery when he says our attack must improve, but I'll leave my thoughts for the match previews. Anyways that's that.

Valencia CF 1-1 Chelsea FC - Match Report

2011-09-29T09:27:00.003+02:00

Valencia CF 1-1 Chelsea FC

Possession: 56%-44%

Goals: Lampard, Soldado

Assists: Malouda

Attempts on target: 8-8

Valencia CF and Chelsea FC shared the spoils in last night's match what was an interesting and competitive game that should have both sided pleased, although Chelsea do have more to rue about, since they've had several shots saved in time of 3-4 minutes.

Technical Details:
Valencia CF (1): Diego Alves; Miguel, Rami, Víctor Ruiz, Jordi Alba; Albelda, Éver (Jonas, min. 73); Pablo (Feghouli, min.73), Canales, Mathieu (Piatti, min. 59); Soldado.

Chelsea FC (1): Čech; Bosingwa, David Luiz, Terry, A. Cole; Ramires (Meireles, min. 66), Obi Mikel, Lampard (Kalou, min. 83); Malouda, Torres (Anelka, min. 72), Mata.

Goals: 0-1 Lampard (min. 56), 1-1 Soldado (p) (min. 87)

Anyways Unai Emery started the match with the standard 4-2-3-1 formation:
Diego
Miguel Rami Ruiz Mathieu
Albelda Banega
Pablo Canales Mathieu
Soldado

The start of the match was a handful for Valencia as the players were really nervous and pretty much half the team made stupid, silly mistakes. For example Albelda had a back pass that gifted Torres the ball and if Rami wasn't as good and Torres as bad it would have resulted in a goal for Chelsea. Rami himself also had few lapses, as did Banega who also lost the ball in dangerous positions.
Sufficive to say the first 10 minutes or so were all filled with mistakes on both sides, but mostly on the Valencia side.

After the storm calmed down and the players settled we started having more possession and a bit of a breathing room and maneuvering place. Both teams were pressing hard when they lost the ball, but quickly fall back to their own half to form a double line defense and basically put positional pressure.

So the game turned into changing turns who was in attack and defense. Valencia will start attacking and Chelsea will pull back and defend and vice versa. The first half was played without too much chances and the battle was fought in the middle where Valencia was a little bit better with 54% of the control of the ball in the first half. Apart from few sporadic forward runs from both sides and dew crosses nothing major happened.

Second half started a bit more intensely and this is when things got much more interesting. Valencia CF started strong with control of the ball and threatening in attack, but about 5-6 minutes in the second half for some reason Valencia almost felt apart and in a total of 5 minutes Chelsea managed to create 4 huge scoring opportunities that if it wasn't for the superb Diego Alves would have probably went in. So Diego saved Valencia, but he can only do so much as in an incoming attack Malouda would beat Alba and cross to the lone Lampard who's shot easily found the net.

Valencia will go on a strong attack after the recieved goal and Chelsea started setting up for defending their small lead, as the game was physical and hard and Villas-Boas knew chances would be rare so he closed up his team and they started defending. Emery brought Piatti for Mathieu to provide a more attacking threat and Piatti instantly made an impact after founding himself alone in front of goal with only Cech, but failed to score. Emery noticed that Chelsea were comitted to defense and won't move out, so he took out Banega as he wasn't needed too much at that point and put in Jonas. This was a double substitution so he also took off Pablo who was quite ineffective and brought Feghuoli on. The changes had immidiate effect and Jonas and Feghuoli really started probing and opening up Chelsea.

With Valencia now more dangerous Piatti and Soldado found themselves with more chances, but couldn't quite score and as attacking as Valencia was, Chelsea seemed like it was going to go away with the 3 points from Mestalla, until Kalou decided for some reason to play with his hand in his own penalty and it was pretty stupid as there was absolutely no need for it and there was no absolutely no threat towards Cech goal. Anyways the referee gave a penalty and Soldado took the penalty superbly, sending off Cech in the wrong direction and scoring the goal.

Match statistics

Valencia		Chelsea
1	Goals scored	1
8	Attempts on target	8
7	Attempts off target	1
6	Corners	5
3	Offsides	2
9	Fouls committed	10
2	Yellow cards	4
0	Red cards	0

Valencia CF 1-1 Chelsea FC Player Ratings

2011-09-28T23:05:00.001+02:00

Diego Alves 10 (MotM) - Absolutely brilliant performance, in a period of 5 minutes made some amazing saves, had one more amazing save towards the end to keep the result 1-1. Just perfect. Biggest mark I've given.
Miguel 4.5 - Slow and clumsy performance from Miguel, exposed numerous times and forced Rami to come out way too often on the side, couldn't get a decent cross for his life.
Rami 7 - Great performance once again from the Frenchmen as he commanded his area and made few curucial interceptions.
Ruiz 6 - Did well enough, but when pressed by the Chelsea attack made mistakes. Not his best performance and maybe he needs a little rest to get his strength and focus up.
Alba 6 - Did well in defense overall, but crucially allowed the cross that lead to the goal for Chelsea. Offered support going forward, but wasn't too secure and convincing in defense.
Albelda 6 - Had several misplaced passes in the beginning, giving the ball away to Chelsea in dangerous positions and Torres almost scored from his back pass. Improved later on and did good, but could have easily cost the team to loose with his poor passing early on.
Banega 7 - As Albelda was nervous at the beginning and lost few balls in dangerous positions, but improved later on and provided good passing, outlet for going forward and his performance was generally positive.
Pablo 6 - Quite the ineffective performance from Pablo even though he was rested on the weekend, but tonight he failed to provide anything of note and while he was full of running, failed to make an impact.
Canales 7 - Good performance and provided some good piercing passes that players couldn't take advantage of, dropped deeper when needed and worked very hard for the team.
Mathieu 6 - Its in this matches when one can see Mathieu is not a winger. Had good forward runs and good crosses, but wasn't intelligent with his crosses and they were all instinctive missing some opportunities. Still though had a decent showing.
Soldado 6 - Moved in some good positions and had decent service, its just that his first touch let him down and failed to control the ball so often, ruining his chances. Perfectly taken penalty though.
Subs:
Piatti 6 - Instantly effective as he was dangerous for Chelsea goal, had two shots towards goal, probably should have done better with those, but was more dangerous than Mathieu.
Jonas 6 - His and Feghuoli's coming on provided some urgency into the attack and Valencia became more dangerous, had a good shot on goal that Cech saves and created trouble for Chelsea.
Feghuoli 6 - Ditto Jonas, had great positive effect on VCF attack, provided some good passes, some good crosses and did more in 20 minutes than Pablo did in 70.

Unai Emery 7 - Set up the team great, pretty much what you'd expect though and in the second half made great substitutions that added depth and urgency in the attack and got lucky as Valencia equalized, although that was more Andre's sub helping us out.

Valencia CF vs Chelsea FC - Match Preview

2011-09-26T20:24:00.003+02:00

Valencia CF vs Chelsea FC

Stadium: Mestalla

2nd fixture, Champions League

Expected attendance: 55.000

Coaches: Unai Emery and Andre Villas-Boas

Here we are once again facing Chelsea FC in the Champions Leauge. The last time Valencia CF faced Chelsea at the Mestalla was in year 2007 in September as well I think when Valencia CF lost 2-1.
Valencia took the lead after nine minutes back then when David Villa raced clear to beat Petr Cech, but was unable to keep the composure for 90 minutes and eventually lost 2-1.

New Chelsea FC signing Juan Mata will have a swift return to Valencia CF after the Group E draw and is going to return to Valencia CF wearing the opposition dress this time.

In his first press conference for Chelsea, Juan Mata said: "I have a wish that [the two clubs] will meet in the final of this season's Champions League." I guess his wish came true, but a lot sooner than he had wished.

Both teams are pretty much the same in quality with young managers on the helm, with Villas Boas reminding a bit of the Jose Mourinho story, since he was his assistant and then went on to become Porto manager and win everything with Porto and then transfer to Chelsea, albeit one year sooner than Mourinho.

Head to Head
12/12/2007	UEFA CL	Chelsea vs Valencia	Group B, matchday 2	0 - 0
04/10/2007	UEFA CL	Valencia vs Chelsea	Group B, matchday 1	1 - 2
11/04/2007	UEFA CL	Valencia vs Chelsea	Quarter Finals	1 - 2
05/04/2007	UEFA CL	Chelsea vs Valencia	Quarter Finals	1 - 1

Valencia CF is coming to this match after a hell of a week with FC Barcelona the first opponent, then Sevilla FC next and now Chelsea FC and apart from such a difficult weak it did great and will try to get the better of Chelsea and win as it has certainly shown that is has the quality to do so. Unai Emery doesn't have much room for maneuvering and must go for the win after an unexpected draw with Genk and is going to use the home matches to win against everyone.

Pablo Hernandez has been rested as he is one of the most important players for Valencia CF this season and should be fully ready to help the team try and win.On the other hand Banega, Mathieu, Rami, Ruiz and even Soldado played in the Sevilla match with all but Soldado starting the match.

Valencia CF lost the match against Sevilla FC 1-0 and I've written a technical report on it explaining why Valencia CF played bad in the first half, how and why it improved in the second half and why Emery's substitutions worked against us.
But that is behind us now and the focus in on Chelsea FC who are a dangerous opponent and the players will need to play at their best and be fully focused to beat them.

Valencia CF coach Unai Emery had this to say in the press-conference: "Tomorrow is a big game with the usual complications, but we feel confident. We know all about Chelsea but also know that we are a very strong side, even more so here at Mestalla. We are only focused on ourselves and want to produce a great game and a victory for our fans. Tomorrow every player wearing blue [including Mata] will be our enemy.

Chelsea defend and attack their own way, and we'll try to exploit this and hurt them. I expect a physical game and we have to be switched on. We respect all our rivals but this doesn't affect our philosophy of playing football.

We want a full stadium and it's our responsibility to put on a great show so the fans can enjoy a great game. I can't promise victory, but we will give our all to get one. We played our best match of the season against Barcelona [2-2 last Wednesday], but every opponent is different and we have to adapt to them.

In the Champions League there are many great teams, and we're one of them. Chelsea were the top seeds and we were in the second pot, but the favorites don't always win"

Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Vicente Guaita, Diego Alves.
Defenders: Bruno, Miguel, Ricardo Costa, Rami, Víctor Ruiz, Mathieu, Jordi Alba.
Midfielders: Albelda, Maduro, Éver, Feghouli, Pablo, Parejo, Piatti, Canales.
Forwards: Jonas, Adúriz, Soldado.

Chelsea FC on the other hand is coming to this match after a big victory in the Premier League against the newly promoted team Swansea and they completely destroyed them even with one man less. Torres scored his fourth goal I believe, but was later on given a red card and would be thankful that his team managed to beat Swansea easily even without him.

Juan Mata played 60 minutes in the game and provided the assist to Torres for the first goal, he was quite dangerous on the left side all the way until he was substituted.
Whether Juan Mata play against Valencia CF is still unknown as Chelsea manager Boas may think its too early of a return to Valencia and Mata may not give his best, so we'll have to see.

Chelsea FC have also made a great start to the Champions League and they beat Bayern Leverkuzen in their first match, so right now they are the group leaders and are surely planning to leave the Mestalla with at least one point from it.
In their match against Leverkuzen Luiz came in and scored a fantastic goal who he himself started and set up basically, but he has not featured in the premier league at all, so this may be his chance to start and personally I don't know why he hasn't been starting in the Premier League, I mean they did spend 20 million on him last season and he was supposed to be Terry's hair, but it seems everyone so far is ahead of him right now.

Lampard has also gotten the back seat treatment as well, as his showing this season has been underwhelming and former Liverpool men Meireles is chosen over him. Meireles just joined this summer and has been quite the regular for Chelsea considering, with Malouda also loosing his place to Mata, although Malouda has been benched quite often last season as well.

Anyways there are no reported injuries for Chelsea and all of their squad is fit to play and its definitely going to be an interesting game.

Chelsea FC manager Andre Villas-Boas had this to say at the press conference: "Valencia will be extremely motivated. They had a good game against Barcelona but lost last weekend against Sevilla. They will try to get the three points. In the first game they only got a draw when they expected three points. We have to believe in our philosophy, the game will be very fast and intense, and if we get to win the three points tomorrow we will be in a very good position to go through.

'I am very good friends with [Valencia coach Unai Emery]. I think he is one of the best in the country. He has been extremely successful here in Spain and I hope one day he will go to England in the Premiership because the philosophy is very similar to what Unai believes in. I am very impressed by the way Valencia play football and by the way Unai motivates his players.'

Chelsea FC squad: to be announced...

Technical Details Valencia CF (probable setups) Updated 28.09.11:
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Diego; Miguel, Rami, Ruiz, Mathieu; Banega, ~~Tino~~ Albelda; Pablo, Canales, ~~Piatti~~ Alba; Soldado.
Tactics: Medium defensive line, all round pressure, positional changes from the wingers, 3 way attacks, mixed passing.

Technical Details Chelsea FC (probable setups):
Formation: 4-3-3
Line-up: Cech; Bosingwa, Ivanovic, Terry, Cole; Ramires, Mikel, Meireles; Anelka, Torres, Mata.
Tactics: Medium defensive line, own half closing, three way attacks, free role Mata, mostly short passing.

Result Prediction:
Valencia CF 2-1 Chelsea FC
Well hopefully Emery has learned not to experiment with formations especially against tough opposition and hopefully he'll return to the 4-2-3-1 formation. This is going to be a tough match and there is no telling what may happen, but I expect if Valencia play with full focus and desire as against Barcelona we can win this match. Chelsea are dangerous in attack because they use brute force, since Mata has joined they have a little bit more flair and finesse, but they are still mostly a brute force team so our players will need to be ruthless in their tackles to gain an advantage.
I think Valencia CF will take this match 2-1, but ultimately anything can happen.

Sevilla FC 1-0 Valencia CF - Match Report

2011-09-24T23:51:00.001+02:00

Sevilla FC 1-0 Valencia CF

Possession: 37%-63%

Goals: Kanoute

Assists: Navas

Valencia CF lost its first match this season at the legs of Sevilla FC. And it wasn't just the loss that is bad, but it was how Valencia CF played in the first half.

Technical Details:

Sevilla FC (1): Javi Varas; Martín Cáceres, Emir Spahić, Julien Escudé, Fernando Navarro; Jesús Navas, Piotr Trochowski, Gary Medel, Diego Perotti (Coke Andújar, 70m); Álvaro Negredo (Manu del Moral, 80m), Frédéric Kanouté (Ivan Rakitić, 59m).

Valencia CF (0): Vicente Guaita; Adil Rami, Hedwiges Madruo, Víctor Ruiz (Roberto Soldado, 72m); Bruno Saltor (Antonio Barragán, 46m), Tino Costa, Éver Banega, Jérémy Mathieu; Pablo Piatti (Sergio Canales, 63m), Jonas Gonçalves, Aritz Aduriz.

Goals: 1-0 Frédéric Kanouté (18th minute).

Unai Emery started with a 4-3-3 formation:

Guaita

Miguel Rami Ruiz Mathieu

Banega Maduro Tino

Piatti Aduriz Jonas

This formation has never worked for Valencia CF in any shape or form, and having some weird transformations in it as well didn't help one bit either and it just made it more confusing to the players. But I know what Emery was thinking and why he set up the formation as he did.

He was planing on playing Maduro so back that in a way it would be only Tino and Banega in the middle with Mathieu and Bruno standing in the middle as playing as wingers and have Jonas come in deep whenever possible when attacking.

Here is an illustration:

The first image is the starting formation, but that formation was fully transformed when defending and attacking. For example when transforming to attack the formation changes to what it is in the second position. As you can see from red arrows the distance from Tino to Banega was huge and not to mention the distance from Tino to Mathieu or Bruno so most of the time the ball ended up circling in the defense for too long until Rami crossed forward or until Bruno came back and got the ball. As it was, Banega did not come back and with Tino unable to bring the ball forward Valencia was forced to play with long crosses that ended up just giving the ball to Sevilla.

In the situations when we did manage some try at an attack our left side was fully exposed. As you can see from the second picture the red arrow from Matheu and the back. Our whole left side was exposed and as we saw Jesus Navasu used this space to get a counter attack and pass the ball to Kanoute who had ample time to slot the ball into the net.

But that wasn't Valencia's only problem. Since Emery wanted the full backs to play as wingers this also left our right side exposed since Bruno was way too slow to came back from attack and his attacking contribution wasn't something to talk about either.

Ultimately it was Emery's fault for the formation and tactical setup and only did he fix it at the start of the second half.

Anyone noticing any difference? As you can see Emery made some good changed in the second half, that he should have probably started with. As you can see from the above picture Ever Banega and Tino Costa changed places. Why was that you ask? Well its because this way Valencia CF had someone (Banega) who can actually bring the ball out of defense and transfer it in attack. This could have possibly left us more vulnerable in attack and I suspect this is why Emery didn't start this way, but Banega and Maduro were able to cope good in defense and Tino Costa dropped deep anyways since once we controlled the ball there was time for Banega to move forward still on the left side and Tino Costa to come backward, still on the right side.

The other change was Mathieu came a little bit more back and this created the perfect passing opportunities for Banega who could play to Mathieu on the wing, Maduro back if under pressure or forward to Tino Costa. It also created a natural progression for the ball to be passed.

Third change was the arrival of Barragan in the place of Bruno and this had basically one effect and that is to add some speed on the right wing. It made the right wing more safe defensively and more dangerous offensively.

Fourth change was the position of Jonas. As you remember in the first half he barely touched the ball and was nowhere to be seen and this is because he can't play as a left winger. He is either a striker, support striker or an attacking midfielder. Emery decided to put him just behind Aduriz, but give him the freedom to roam and this paid off as Jonas linked up quite well with many of the players after this change and we can see him doubling on the right a lot of times or coming in the center straight towards goal and he had quite a few shots and passes with his new position and given freedom.

The biggest mistake Emery did in this match looking from retrospective is the substitution of Piatti for Canales.

With the four changes Emery made we were basically stranded with only one attacker as Jonas was positioned as an attacking midfielder.

At this point Sevilla were with two players down and I guess he wanted to add some more precision passes from the right into the penalty area and with Piatti missing 20 passes it wasn't going to happen by him. The problem was that our midfield at that point became too crowded and with Canales playing more in the middle than right it sort of strangled our own attack and decreased the effectivness of Jonas.

Mathieu was also tiering as always around the 70th minute mark and instead of Canales, it would have made perfect sense to Bring on Feghuoli for Tino Costa who wasn't really needed at that point and all he did was provide short passes to Banega and nothing else.

Replacing Tino with Feghuoli would have put Piatti on the left side and he would have helped out Mathieu, Feghuoli would have slotted on the right and added more depth to the right wing and later on Emery could have brought on Soldado for Ruiz.

As it is this loss was not Emery's fault per say, as Banega missed a penalty, Aduriz got himself send off by falling for Navarro's provocation and basically gave Sevilla a lifeline.

Ultimately it was a combination of things that resulted in Valencia CF loosing, from the bad formation, the unknown 3 defense system that caused Rami and Ruiz problems to Banega missing a penalty, Aduriz getting send off and generally the weaker play by all the players in the first half.

Sevilla 1-0 Valencia - Player Ratings

2011-09-24T20:16:00.000+02:00

Player Ratings:
Guaita 6 - Had one good intervention, and could do nothing for the goal.
Bruno 5 - In no mans land, wasn't good defensively nor offensively. Properly substituted at half time.
Rami 6 - Mixed performance from the French. Did not communicate with Ruiz as he should have and both managed to mark absolutely no one.
Ruiz 6 - Same as Rami, both share responsibility for first goal. Other than that was pretty good.
Mathieu 6.5 - Some great runs forward and provided crosses and passes in abundance, but similarly as Dani for example for Barcelona was absent from defense and it showed as Jesus Navas counter attack led to the goal.
Maduro 6 - Was actually quite effective in defense, though I guess was a bit of a nuisance to Rami and Ruiz as he was ordered to go the sweeper position when Valencia defended and they weren't used to a 3 man defense.
Banega 6 - Overall it was a good match for Banega, but did have two bad reactions where he lost the ball in dangerous positions and missed a penalty. Still he was pretty much the only guy that can actually start an attack from the middle.
Tino Costa 6 - Absolutely terrible in the first half, improved in the second and finally started playing good when Sevilla were 2 men down. Overall if Sevilla wasn't 2 men down would have gotten a rating of probably 5.
Piatti 5.5 - Ran channels, was very active and did actually have one good pass to Aduriz that put him clear on goal, but misplaced 10 other passes and goes down to the slightest touch. Messi is similar stature but can dribble and pass.
Aduriz 4 - What a bad day for Aduriz. As if achieving nothing in attack isn't bad enough, he felt to Navaro's provocation and stepped on Navarro's leg and was shown the red card just when Valencia were 2 men up.
Jonas 6 - Was quite crap in the first half, improved quite a bit in the second, but not quite enough to score a goal.
Subs:
Barragan 6.5 Was quite the step up from Bruno and if this didn't place him above Bruno in the pecking order I don't know what will. Played good in defense and attack, albeit he had a little easier time as Sevilla lost 2 men later on.
Canales 5 - Didn't bring anything in the field. Should have played right, but he was always going to the middle, crowding the place.
Soldado N/A - Not enough time.

Unai Emery 4 - Started with a wrong formation. We would have controlled the game without 3 midfielders. Should have just started with 4-2-3-1 as its served us so well so far. He put Jonas on the left a position Jonas has publicly said he doesn't like and can't play. It is what it is, but he also made a wrong substitution by subbing Canales for Piatti. He should have brought Feghuoli and added depth to the wings as our team with Canales now had 4 central midfielders and no wingers !

Sevilla FC vs Valencia CF - Match Preview

2011-09-23T17:25:00.004+02:00

Sevilla FC vs Valencia CF

Stadium: Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán

September 24th 2011, 18:00CET

6th matchday, La Liga

Expected Attendance: 42.000

Coaches: Marcelino García Toral and Unai Emery

Valencia CF is in its toughest week or so as far as I can remember back. Before the match against FC Barcelona just 3 days earlier, Valencia CF played Sporting Gijon just 4 days before the Barca match. And if the match against Barcelona wasn't hard enough we now face Sevilla FC and after that once again just 4 days later we face Chelsea FC in the Champions League. So over 11 days Valencia CF is to play 4 matches against 3 top clubs. Good thing is that two are down with good success rate, two to go.

Valencia CF had a great match against Barcelona and deserved to win no doubt about it as it was the far better side of the first half. Soldado had the amazing chance to put Valencia up 3-1, but unluckily he missed from less than 1 meter. Of course Valencia CF had other opportunities and also started the second half with more dangerous attacks and it wasn't until the 70th minute when Valencia tempo slowed down and Barcelona started to dominate and had their best chances of the match, including a goal.

Overall Valencia CF has had a good season so far and is currently first place in the league, but its only the beginning of the season and Valencia CF must keep its momentum.

Sevilla FC is coming to this match after a fairly good start to the season and have had a two difficult matches themselves against Malaga and Villarreal in which they managed to draw 2-2 away from home. Sevilla FC have 8 points from 4 matches and are capable of beating Valencia CF as history can testify if.

They have the same core team from last season and they are experienced and great players that know their football and with a new coach they are reinvigorated this season. Its obvious that they are a top level club as they managed to beat Malaga at the start of the season, who sports some big talent now, then went on to draw with Villarreal on the road. A bit of a bummer for them would be their latest match in which they only managed to draw with Osasuna, the team that lost 8-0 to Barcelona just few days earlier.
The biggest changes in the transfer were the departure of central defender Didier Zokora and the arrival of striker Manu Del Moral from Getafe. Other than those two they had quite a bit of changes overall, but mostly fringe players, except for probably Diego Capel.

Negredo is curently the top scorer for Srvilla as can be expected and he is in good form, as shown from his club matches for which he was called for the Spain team where he showed his good form as well scoring some goals and helping out Spain.

Sevilla FC squad:
Goalkeepers: Andrés Palop, Javi Varas
Defenders: Coke Andújar, Martín Cáceres, Alexis Ruano, Emir Spahić, Julien Escudé, Fernando Navarro
Midfielders: Jesús Navas, Emiliano Armenteros, Diego Perotti, Gary Medel, Ivan Rakitić, Piotr Trochowski, José Campaña
Forwards: Manu del Moral, Álvaro Negredo, Frédéric Kanouté

Valencia CF on the other hand is coming to this match as second place on the table and after a great match with Barcelona, having competed with them and beat them at their own game for 70 minutes of the match. Of course then changes were made and players got tired and Barcelona dominated the last 20 minutes, but I'd say winning against Barcelona for 70 minutes is whats the main story here. Soldado even had an amazing chance to put Valencia up 3-1, but he missed a sitter from less than 1 meter.
If you havent seen the match go see as it was great football, great spectacle and you are missing a lot.

Unai Emery decided to change the squad up for this match and rest few players like Pablo Hernandez and Miguel Brito, while Jordi Alba is suspended and David Albelda injured and will be out for at least a week.

In their place Emery brought Barragan, Feghuoli, Parejo and Ricardo Costa. Basically all but Costa have not had their debut in La Liga yet and this could be their best chance to make it.

We should not forget that after this match Valencia have an even difficult opponent just 4 days later in the Champions League where we face Chelsea and our former player until a month ago Juan Mata. So Emery should probably rest the strongest players for that Match and give the other players some playing time.

Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Vicente Guaita, Diego Alves
Defenders: Antonio Barragán, Bruno Saltor, Adil Rami, Víctor Ruiz, Ricardo Costa, Jérémy Mathieu
Midfielders: Hedwiges Maduro, Tino Costa, Éver Banega, Dani Parejo, Pablo Piatti, Sergio Canales, Sofiane Feghouli
Forwards: Roberto Soldado, Jonas Gonçalves, Aritz Aduriz

Technical Details Sevilla FC (probable setups):

Formation: 4-4-2

Line-up: Javi Varas; Navarro, Alexis, Escude, Caceres; Navas, Medel, Rakitic, Peroti; Negredo, Kanoute.

Tactics: Medium defensive line, own third closing down, mixed passing, high frequency wing attacks with mostly crosses from the wings.

Technical Details Valencia CF (probable setups):

Formation: 4-2-3-1

Line-up: Guaita; Barragan, Rami, Ruiz, Mathieu; Maduro, Tino; Feghuoli, Canales, Piatti; Aduriz;

Tactics: Medium defensive line, own half pressure, high frequency wing attacks, counter attacks, mixed passing.

Result Prediction:

Sevilla FC 0-1 Valencia CF

Sevilla have been quite shy for goals so far in the season and with Valencia players spening all of their energy against Barcelona I don't think this is going to be a goal fest. I think both teams are going to be equally matched and the defenses will give us the winner and that should be Valencia as I know Alexis is very bad and if he plays we should score.

Valencia CF 2-2 FC Barcelona - Match Report

2011-09-22T00:32:00.004+02:00

Valencia CF 2-2 FC Barcelona

Possession: 44%-56%

Goals: Abidal(o.g.), Pedro, Pablo, Cesc

Assists: Messi, Mathieu, Messi

Goal occasions: 3-6

Great match from Valencia CF and this shows that Barcelona can be beat and beat rather easily as Valencia showed tonight with chance after chacne in the first half, but unfortunately there were some incredible misses like the Soldado one and that kept Barcelona coming out of the Mestalla with a lucky draw. Valencia CF showed that it is a serious title contender and I look forward to the next time we face Barcelona so we can destroy them and hopefully ruin their title hopes so that Valencia CF is first.

After few minutes of testing each other the first chance came from Valencia CF from a counter attack in which Pablo Hernandez had a shot.

The following minutes would be a tug of war in the middle of the field, with neither side able to dominate possession and the sporadic runs forward.

The next chance would come in the 12th minute once again from Valencia CF as Mathieu recieved a ball from Pablo and send a cross that Abidal touched and send the ball into his own net, although the ball would probably ended in the goal if he didn't touch it as well. Anyways Valencia CF had the lead 1-0.

The celebration would be short lasted though as only one minute later Barcelona would manage to equalize. Lionell Messi would manage to send a good pass to the ongoing Pedro and with Miguel caught standing Pedro had a clear sight of goal and scored to equalize the result.

The match would go once again into a battle for the middle with Valencia CF overall the better team with more dangerous runs towards the Barcelona goal. Then in the 23rd minute Mathieu's cross founds Pablo Hernandez who scores and puts Valencia CF in the lead. The goal chance was started by Banega who dribbled past 2 FCB players and passed the ball to Mathieu who was able to assist Pablo.

Then 3 minutes later Alba and Mathieu would combine superbly on the left and Alba sends the ball to Banega, but this one miss controls the ball and ends up loosing it.

After quite a battle in the middle once for for about 10 minutes Puyol plays with his hand, but the referee waves play on, only for the ball to reach Soldado and Puyol fouls Soldado, but its Soldado who receives a yellow card? Does this make sense? No, but obviously the referee is favorite towards Barcelona and people better admit it.

Barcelona was quite helpless in the first half and did not create any dangerous chances towards Valencia goal, but that is why Valencia was dangerous and in the 41st minute Mathieu with another great run on the left and a great pass that found Soldado alone, but Soldado somehow managed to miss from only 1 meter. How he managed to miss the chance is a mystery and will surely eat him up.

Second half started similarly to the first, although Barcelona did have more of the possession, but it was Valencia CF who had the first chance as Pablo crosses towards Soldado, but this one fails to deliver once again.

67th minute Mascherano releases a powerful bomb shot towards Guaita and hits the woodwork, but thankfully it didn't went in. Just few minutes later decent chance for Barca as Adriano goes past Alba, but nothing comes out of the chance.

Messi later tries with a shot, but Ruiz manages to block in the last moment and Guaita gets the ball. Just a minute after that Messi runs towards Valencia CF goal, but Rami closes in on him and get him off balance, enough time for Guaita to catch the ball.

Barcelona were getting very dangerous in the past 5 minutes and Valencia CF needed to calm down the tempo, but failed and Cesc Fabregas scores from a great assist from Messi and once again proves that Barcelona is an average team that Valencia CF can beat with no problems, but they have Messi who is undoubtedly the best player of all time. Just as Barcelona was struggling he was their main threat and along with Cesc managed to save Barca from a loss. Either way Soldado should have converted his chance in the first half and right now must take the blame for Valencia's loss. You are not allowed to miss from 1 meter and less in any game, let alone against Barcelona.

Anyways after that Villa and Adriano found themselves with a goal chance in the 89th minute and in the first chance Guaita saves from Villa and in the second Barcelona chance Miguel saves as he blocks the ball from going into the goal.

Then two minutes in extended time the referee for some reason goes berserk and gives Alba a red card for no obvious reason. Luckily the game ends and Valencia CF get a draw even though it deserved a victory and would have gotten it, if Soldado didn't ruin a 1 meter chance.

Technical Details:

Valencia CF (2): Guaita; Miguel, Rami, Ruiz, Alba; Albelda(Tino Costa, 46th minute), Banega; Pablo, Canales(Jonas Gonçalves, 69th minute), Mathieu(Pablo Piatti, 73rd minute); Soldado.

FC Barcelona (2): Valdes; Alves, Puyol(Thiago Alcántara, 63rd minute), Mascherano, Abidal; Xavi, Busquets, Keita(Adriano Correia, 57th minute); Pedro(David Villa, 57th minute), Messi, Cesc.

Goals: 1-0 Eric Abidal (own goal, 12th minute), 1-1 Pedro Rodríguez (14th minute), 2-1 Pablo Hernández (23rd minute), 2-2 Cesc Fàbregas (77th minute).

Player Ratings:

Guaita 7 - Had some great saves and couldn't do anything about the goals. Overall though not tested too much as Barcelona was lucky to end the game with a draw.

Miguel 6.5 - Way too many mistakes at the begining and wasn't convincing in the first half, but went on to make few crucial interceptions in the second half, including saving the goal from the goal line.

Rami 7 - Won most of his duels and covered well in defense, but a little bit exposed when the midfield was not too quick to cover.

Ruiz 6.5 - Had a decent match and wasn't particularly at fault for any goal, had few great blocks, but it shows that he and Rami need more playing time together to improve.

Alba 6.5 - Some great defensive maneuvers and some rather poor ones. Dani and then Adriano got the better of him, but he also had quite a few great moves in attack. Lucky that his mistakes didn't cost goals, otherwise the score would have been lower.

Pablo 7 - Good work all over the field as he covered a lot of ground. Managed to score a goal and was somewhat dangerous on the right, although he did come to the middle to help out Banega.

Albelda 6 - Good cover for the defense and his experience and positioning is exceptional, but lacks the pace and passing skill to move the Valencia CF midfield forward.

Banega 8 - Amazing skill, singlehandedly countered the Barcelona midfield and kept possession for Valencia CF. Involved in all the attacks and generally all positive things came from him. Got tired in the later stages of the match and made few mistakes towards the end, but overall great match.

Mathieu 8 (MotM) - No doubt about it, the man of the match. Responcible for the first goal, even though it won't be written to him, set up the second goal and then set up several other chances including the one to Soldado when he missed from 1 meter.

Canales 6 - Good defensive work from Canales and managed to steal quite a few balls from Barcelona. Went deep to get the ball when needed, but not too influential in attack.

Soldado 3.5 - What a miserable match from Soldado. I'm in shock he wasn't substituted, as he wasn't helping out defensively and wasn't a threat in attack either. A huge miss in the first half that would have made Valencia the winner.

Subs:

Tino Costa 5.5 - Run all over the pitch, tried hard to help put on defense and attack, but the ball just didn't like him too much tonight. Did worse defensively than Albelda and I wonder why emery made the substitution so soon.

Jonas 5 - Another weird substitution. He should have come for Soldado and try some solo runs to threaten Barcelona. As it was he was not good at all.

Piatti 6 - Came in and caused Barcelona quite a few troubles, but failed to provide the kind of threat that Mathieu provided and was also not good enough defensively.

Valencia CF vs FC Barcelona - Match Preview

2011-09-19T14:26:00.002+02:00

Valencia CF vs FC Barcelona

Stadium: Mestalla

September 21st, 2011; 20:00CET

5th matchday, La Liga

Expected Attendance: 55.000

Coaches: Unai Emery and Josep Guardiola

Its that time again in the new season where we face the title defenders and favorites for winning it again FC Barcelona. The matches between Valencia CF and FC Barcelona have always been very entertaining and have attracted huge crowds and a lot of viewership not only in Spain, but all over the world.

While the Barcelona fans are undoubtedly in higher numbers all over the world, Valencia CF does have a good amount of abroad fans considering the fact that Spanish clubs, but Valencia CF in particular haven't really done anything to attract foreign fans and all the support that Valencia CF has over the world is grass roots and grown spontaneously. Obviously helping were the few websites and blogs that covered Valencia CF over the years.

No doubt this is going to be an interesting clash once again and an entertaining game and in a lot of ways its a measurement for Spanish clubs in recent years to assess their strengths against the untouchable Barcelona. This time is different though and even though on paper Barcelona are still the clear favorites I don't think they are and I've already written an article how Valencia CF will destroy Barcelona.

I'm pretty sure that with the injuries of Iniesta and Alexis Sanchez, Valencia CF will have an easier time and watching all Barcelona games since the start of the competitions I'd have to say with absolute certainty that David Villa is out of form and even though he still possesses his amazing technique he has become slower, clumsier and has even lost some of his mental strength. I can say the same thing about Xavi who even though still possesses the possessions skills, he lack pace, he lacks the piercing through passes that he's been very well known for over the years and is generally a lot more average as of late.

I think this is going to be a good match for Valencia CF and I'm a little worried since it comes very quickly in the season and the team has too many new signings and hasn't had the time to gel yet, so from that point I'm a little bit comprehensive, but we are going to see what happens.

Valencia CF gets 40 million TV rights money, Barcelona gets 140 million TV rights money. Valencia champions league qualification is considered a success, while for Barca winning only La Liga is somewhat of a disappointment.
The contrast between these two clubs is huge, especially in recent years, but when these two sides meet on the grass what matters is only the performance on the pitch and nothing else.

Head to Head

Date	Home		Away	Competition
Mar 02, 2011	Valencia CF	0 : 1	FC Barcelona	Primera Division
Oct 16, 2010	FC Barcelona	2 : 1	Valencia CF	Primera Division
Mar 14, 2010	FC Barcelona	3 : 0	Valencia CF	Primera Division
Oct 17, 2009	Valencia CF	0 : 0	FC Barcelona	Primera Division
Apr 25, 2009	Valencia CF	2 : 2	FC Barcelona	Primera Division
Dec 06, 2008	FC Barcelona	4 : 0	Valencia CF	Primera Division
May 04, 2008	FC Barcelona	6 : 0	Valencia CF	Primera Division

Valencia CF is coming to this match after an important victory over Sporting Gijon this last weekend, albeit a small 1-0 victory. What is important is that the defense hasn't conceded any goals in three matches already, since the Rami and Ruiz duo took over. This match against FC Barcelona is going to be the important assessment though whether the defensive duo is really good or has it been just lucky with weaker opposition. By the way the first La Liga match (2nd technically) Valencia CF conceded 3 goals by Racing with the duo of Rami and Costa, but lets wait and see about the new duo and how good it is.

Valencia CF also had a little bit disappointing start to the champions league with a draw against Genk, although Valencia played away and every champions league team is good if its managed to qualify for the Champions league group stages, but still most of us expected a comprehensive win against them and it didn't happen. The positives from that match are that Pablo Hernandez, Tino Costa and Canales were rested and all are likely to start against Barcelona.

So far so good for Valencia CF in the Spanish league with 9 out of 9 points and is currently sitting in first position ahead of Real Madrid and Barcelona. Soldado has been in good form, although I didn't like some of the great chances he missed against Gijon, Pablo has thankfully been in good form and is one of the most important players for Valencia CF and Ever Banega has played so far so good and seems really motivated to prove himself. Maybe not having Chori influencing him in bad ways is paying off?!

Mehmet Topal is injured and will be out for 2 to 3 weeks with a shoulder injury, but other than him everyone right now is fit and ready to face Barcelona. Valencia CF vs FC Barcelona is going to be a really interesting match.

Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Vicente Guaita, Diego Alves
Defenders: Miguel Brito, Bruno Saltor, Adil Rami, Víctor Ruiz, Jordi Alba, Jérémy Mathieu
Midfielders: David Albelda, Hedwiges Maduro, Tino Costa, Éver Banega, Pablo Piatti, Pablo Hernández, Sergio Canales
Forwards: Roberto Soldado, Jonas Gonçalves, Aritz Aduriz

FC Barcelona on the other hand is coming to this match having silenced their doubters and skeptics with a comprehensive victory of 8-0 over Osasuna this past weekend. This victory was very important for Barcelona because they had sort of a mini crisis with two draws in just few short days. Their first draw came in the Spanish league with Real Sociedad; 2-2. Then came their second draw with Milan in the Champions league. Even though Barcelona had most of the play against Milan and created way more chances for goal, they really seemed vulnerable at the back.
In that regard Barcelona have some great news as Puyol has been playing the last 2 matches some minutes and seems ready to step up and take his spot in the back four.

Last year the most trouble that Barcelona had was against Valencia CF in both the matches and Valencia CF was the best and only team to take the game to Barcelona and have as much as 49% possession. Valencia CF also scored first in the second match and had several more opportunities to increase their lead, but just didn't have enough luck. In the second half though Barcelona pressed and managed to get more of the possession and were the more dangerous team and ultimately scored two goals and won.

The most dangerous player for Barcelona is of course Lionel Messi as he is able to single-handedly win games, Bearcelona would otherwise struggle to win. He has incredible dribbling skill, pace and passing range and is the most important player. If Valencia CF want to stop Barcelona from scoring they must shut down Messi completely. Players like Cesc Fabregas and Xavi are good, but Messi is on another level.

FC Barcelona are quite weakened as they are without the injured Iniesta and Alexis Sanchez, although this year they have Cesc Fabregas and Thiago who can come in and fill the shoes. They also have good news and that is that Affelay returned from injury and even got some minutes in their last game against Osasuna.

FC Barcelona squad:
Goalkeepers: Víctor Valdés, José Manuel Pinto
Defenders: Dani Alves, Carles Puyol, Javier Mascherano, Maxwell Scherrer, Adriano Correia, Éric Abidal, Andreu Fontàs
Midfielders: Cesc Fàbregas, Xavi Hernández, Thiago Alcántara, Seydou Keita, Sergio Busquets
Forwards: David Villa, Lionel Messi, Pedro Rodríguez, Ibrahim Afellay

Technical Details Valencia CF (probable setups):
Formation: 4-2-1-2-1
Line-up: Guaita; Miguel, Rami, Ruiz, Mathieu; Albelda, Tino; Banega; Pablo, Alba; Soldado.
Tactics: Low defensive line, own half pressure, double left side cover, high frequency wing attacks, counter attacks, mixed passing.

Technical Details FC Barcelona (probable setups):
Formation: 4-3-3
Line-up: Valdes; Alves, Mascherano, Puyol, Abidal; Xavi, Busquets, Cesc; Thiago, Messi, Adriano.
Tactics: Medium defensive line, interchangeable right wing, double right side cover, bore VCF to death with endless circle passes that pose no danger and when all fell asleep score a goal.

Result Prediction:
Valencia CF 2-1 FC Barcelona
Valencia CF hasn't had enough time to gel yet and this may cause few problems, but Emery is likely to field players from last year and bench Canales, Piatti and the likes. Barcelona should be pretty tired as they haven't changed much in all their matches and with Iniesta and Alexis injured they are forced to play the same squad. Ultimately Valencia CF will be better and beat Barcelona 2-1.