Valencia CF 0-1 Manchester United FC match report

The worst game we've played so far. Lots of possession for nothing and in the end 10 players forward and 1 back, how can you expect not to take a goal on the counter attack.

It was Manchester United who stole the victory from Valencia at the Mestalla. The hopes were high and players confidence beaming, but I think the strategy failed us and its probably Unai Emery's fault.
We went all-in attack from the 60th minute when Emery introduced Aduriz for Chori Dominguez, that attacking mentality fortified with the introduction of Fernandes for Tino Costa. It was mostly 9 man in attack and just 2 defending and we were made to pay for it.
We were surprisingly bad at attack, while we had most of the possession and initiative we could not muster up good chances and the few we had, Soldado missed them.
Maybe Aduriz should have played from the start as he has been very energetic and deadly finisher for most of the time.
Anyways it was 2 Manchester subs that combined to score the wining goal in the 86th minute.
Perhaps this is a lesson for the team and Emery not to go all in attack, especially in a Champions League match. A point is always better than no point.

Valencia missed Ever Banega so much in this match, its obvious. Tino Costa can perform against lesser opposition, but in the 2 big games we had against Atletico Madrid and Manchester United he was nowhere to be found. Valencia need a leader in those cases on the pitch, someone who can take the initiative and dictate play. Pablo Hernandez tried to be that man, but he is a winger and although he tried to be everywhere on the pitch due to lack of Tino Costa, he couldn't do it as he is not a central midfielder and works best as a winger.
Fernandes was way more active than Tino and Valencia got even more dangerous, but it was too late and opened up lots of holes in the back.

Player Ratings:
Cezar 8: Did excellently to deny Berbatov and made all saves he could made.
Miguel 7: Excellent in defense and in attack, linked up magnificently in attack with Pablo.
Navarro 5.5: Made two blunders that could have been goals.
Maduro 6: Better than Navarro and in the end almost defended alone.
Mathieu 5: Pretty good in defense but offered nothing going forward, until the very end and it was too late.
Pablo 7.5: The most lively member of the squad, made numerous runs and passed, though he lacked that one killer pass.
Albelda 8: Great performance from the veteran, broke up Manchester play and also organized the midfield and attack.
Tino Costa 4: Virtual spectator for the whole time he was in, rightfully substituted and its clear he doesn't have what Banega has.
Mata 2: Did nothing, he had few runs and could have done way better with them, but always gave away the ball to the opposition or when he gets the ball he immediately returns it back. He can't get a pay rise with these kind of performances, he is an attacking player and needs to attack and not return every ball back. Guess he idolizes Giggs way too much and lost focus from the game.
Chori 2: Same as Mata, run around, passed a few balls, but nothing concrete or dangerous.
Soldado 5: Had several chances but could not convert them, all of them except one though not very good.
Subs:
Aduriz 6: Really spiced up the attack, was positioning himself well and had an excellent cross for Soldado.
Fernandes 6: With him in Valencia did attack a lot more and seemed more threatening in attack, but the game opened way too much and with just 1 or 2 defenders at the back we received a goal.
Topal NA: Not enough time.

Valencia CF vs Manchester United FC Uefa Champions League preview

Valencia CF VS Manchester United FC
Stadium: Camp De Mestalla
Uefa Champions League matchday 2
Wednesday 29.09.2010; 20:45pm

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Valencia	1	1	0	0	4	0	4	3
2	Man Utd	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	1
3	Rangers	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	1
4	Bursaspor	1	0	0	1	0	4	-4	0

Group C	Bursaspor	Man. United	Rangers	Valencia
Goals scored	0	0	0	4
Goals against	4	0	0	0
Yellow cards	0	1	2	0
Red cards	0	0	0	0
Attempts on target	2	3	4	5
Attempts wide	4	9	0	8
Offside	5	2	1	1
Corners	9	3	0	9
Fouls committed	13	19	12	13
Possession (time)	27	40	26	34
Possession (%)	43%	60%	39%	56%

  Valencia CF vs Man. United FC

Valencia CF play their biggest match so far this season in all competitions. This match is going to show if Valencia's dreams of playing with the big boys can become reality or it will remain just a dream.
Valencia are coming to this game undefeated for 11 home matches in the European competitions and will look to continue and build on those results.
Valencia leads the La Liga table with 13 points and are unbeaten this season in the domestic competition also, they are also coming in after a Champions League game against Bursaspor in which they won by 4 goals to 0.

Manchester United FC are coming to this game with a series of mixed results, they drew the last game in the Premier League with Bolton and failed to capitalize on Chelsea loss. They are also coming off from a draw against Rangers in the Champions League.

This is probably the most interesting match in the second round of the Champions League and both teams have much to prove. Although Manchester United are favorites on paper they haven't had much luck against Spanish teams and have failed to score on their last three visits. United have won just once in 18 visits to Spanish opponents, with eight draws and nine defeats.
Valencia are going to want and build on this as historically their record against English teams is W7 D4 L2.

Valencia played last game against Sporting Gijon with 2 attackers in a 4-4-2 formation and it was probably a testing field to see how the team behaves. Valencia won the game by 2 goals to 0 and offensively it was probably a good game. Valencia coach Unai Emery also rested few players in that game that will most surely feature against Manchester United.

Manchester United played their last game with all regular first eleven starters and their squad at full force, but they only managed a draw with Bolton. Rooney was the biggest flop in that game and has been playing badly from the start of the season, he has also been in the news for his off-field actions and alleged affair.

Press conferences and interviews:
David Albelda had shown up in a press conference in which he talked about Valencia next game against Manchester United, he said: "We play at home and we are confident we can win against Man. Utd."
To end his press conference he said" Manchester United have a great team with known players. Their strengths are known to all, but they are also a team with weaknesses and I think we can use their weaknesses to win."

Valencia president Manuel Llorente also showed up in a press conference and had a swing at Real Madrid, who have been angry why Barcelona are ahead of them, he said: "Seems like news about who is top of the league hasn't reached Real Madrid yet", talking about how Valencia is currently leading the table with 13 points ahead of Barelona and Real Madrid.
He also spoke about the match against Man. Utd." Its an important match in every way and we think it will be one of the most important matches this season. We'll play against a big team and I hope we can win."
Valencia reached two finals in the Champions League after being in a group with Man. United and Llorente commented on that: "I hope history will repeat itself".

Hedwiges Maduro spoke to goal dot com and said how the match against Manchester United will be the biggest test of the season. "We want to show our qualities in our stadium against such a great opponent. Its a big test because Manchester are always one of the favorites to win the Champions League. They're a really big team with a great coach, so this will be a tough game and a really big test for us."

Manchester United midfield Darren Fletcher wants his team to work hard at keeping the ball when they take on Valencia in the Champions League.
He said how they have experience playing in Europe and how they can cope with the travel and different styles of play. He said: "Against Spanish sides, keeping the ball is key. If you give the ball away cheaply, you might not see it for a few minutes and they will punish you."

Squad news:
Manchester United FC will be without Wayne Rooney and Ryan Giggs, both are out due to injuries.

Valencia will have to do without Ever Banega who is still injured and will probably need one more week of recovery. Chori and Mata had a scare as they felt some discomforts, but the team doctors have confirmed it wasn't anything serious and are back with the squad and in full training.

Valencia will be without winger Joaquin who has started in all but one match this season for Valencia CF. He picked up a muscle strain in training and has been redrawn from training and will not play against Manchester United.

Rio Ferdinant may feature against Valencia, but Sir Alex Ferguson said it will be a last minute decision whether he plays or not. Manchester have leaked 9 goals in 5 matches in the premier league and with Rio Ferdinant recovery Ferguson will be hoping he is fit enough to feature against Valencia.

Official Squads:
Valencia CF
GK: César and Moyà.
DEF: Miguel, Bruno, Ricardo Costa, Maduro, Navarro and Mathieu.
MID: Topal, Albelda, Tino Costa, Fernandes, Feghouli and Pablo.
ATT: Domínguez, Mata, Soldado and Aduriz.
Probable starting line-up: Cezar; Miguel, Maduro, R. Costa, Mathieu; Pablo, Topal, Tino Costa, Mata; Aduriz and Soldado.
This is also my own thinking of the best squad to face Manchester, since Joaquin is injured.

Manchester United FC: Van der Sar, O’Shea, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Nani, Carrick, Fletcher, Anderson, Owen and Berbatov.

Referee: Viktor Kassai (Hungary)

Result prediction:  Valencia CF 2-1 Manchester United FC
I expect a tight and very competitive match with chances on both sides. Valencia are playing at home and will have huge support from the home crowds, they also have enough firepower upfront to score goals, but Manchester are a strong team and are likely to get a goal of their own also.
It will all come down on who controls the ball the more and who takes their chances. I still predict a narrow victory for Valencia.

Sporting Gijon vs Valencia CF Aftermath

Sporting coach Manuel Preciado reckons Valencia can be an alternative to the two big teams for the Championchip this season, after his team lost 2-0 to Valencia. He said "Valencia are proving to be a real alternative to the larger teams. Our start was disastrous, we did things badly wrong and a team like Valencia have made us pay dearly."

Coach Unai Emery said that the team has learned how to win in away matches and that the players have learned the team is more important than individuals. He said "To win at El Molinon takes skill and experience, and today Valencia learned to do both."
 He mentioned how Valencia can do better, especially in keeping the ball, but was still happy that Valencia won and got the three points.
Valencia are now first on the table with 13 points, 1 more than Barcelona. Next game is against Manchester United in the Uefa Champions League and this will be a real test for Valencia's La Liga Championship desires.

Sporting Gijon 0-2 Valencia CF match report

Valencia CF won against Sporting Gijon 2-0 in what was a pretty dull match with mostly long balls and half counter attacks.

Valencia started furiously, I was still getting prepared to watch it and its 1-0 for Valencia with Mehmed Topal the scorer. Not even 3 minutes later its 2-0 and this time Soldado scores the goal. Sure the game looked like it will become a goal fest as I predicted, but after a decent chance ruined by Mata in the 20th minute the game slowed down, almost to a full stop.
From there on it was like another Valencia went on the field, they gave the ball to Sporting Gijon and were content to sit back defend and occasionally try on the counter attack.
This was happening from the 20th minute, until the final whistle. Both sides had few chances with Valencia's chances looking more dangerous, but those were mostly half baked counter attacks, no wonder they didn't score a third goal.

Anyways tactically it was a mess, I give Unai Emery a score of 1, he even made a ridiculous decision to bring Chori in for Aduriz, only to take him out minutes later for Jeremy Mathieu. WTF were you thinking Emery?
Soldado or Pablo would have been the logical choices as they were tired, but to substitute a substitution?

Strange decision, hopefully we'll hear from him what was that all about.

Player ratings:
Cezar - 7: Assured performance, wasn't really stretched, but made two impressive saves.
Bruno - 7: Great display from Bruno, really confident in defending and wasn't afraid to go forward.
Navarro - 6.5: He had a good game, pretty clean and straightforward.
R. Costa - 7: One of his better performances, was very solid at the back and had a great calming presence.
J. Alba - 7: Run tirelessly all match long, very lively in defense and attack and made several good tackles to deny the opposition.
Topal - 7: Did very well defensively, needs to work on combining passes with the team, but scored a goal.
Fernades - 5.5: Good defensively, but didn't control the game well as Ever and recently Tino Costa have been doing. Was expected to bring the back forward, but failed to do so.
Pablo - 6: Had a decent performance, involved in attacks, but gave the ball away too much.
Mata - 6: Also had a decent game, but as Pablo he gave the ball away too much.
Aduriz - 6: Had limited chances and had to feed off of scraps.
Soldado - 6.5: Managed to score a goal, otherwise had few half chances and mostly had to feed off of scraps like Aduriz.
Subs:
Chori - NA: Ridiculosly substituted for Mathieu.
Feghuoli - NA: Had few touches with the ball, but Gijon had full control of the game for him to show anything, though could have celebrated if he managed to do better with a run he had.
Mathieu - NA: Not enough time.
Unai Emery - 1: What happened to the Valencia of the first 20 minutes? Was it a tactical thing to preserve energy? After half time the team played or not played at all, just defended. And what was with substituting Chori who came in as a substitution himself?

Sporting Gijon vs Valencia CF preview

Sorry I couldn't watch Valencia last match and had no time to make a preview and review. It was the most interesting match so far, but because it was in mid week I had no time.

Anyways Valencia CF winning streak came to an end as they only managed a draw with Atletico Madrid. David De Gea was the main man of the match as he single-handedly saved Atletico from loosing the game with 3 or 4 goals behind.

Next game Valencia play against Sporting Gijon, before they take on Manchester United for the Champions League match.
Sporting Gijon come of from a good game against Barcelona in which they only lost by one goal. Their coach is also confident that they can win against Valencia. They may have been impressive against Barcelona, but I have a feeling that Valencia is going to produce their most interesting play against them and win with many goals.

Valencia coach Unai Emery said the team is focused on the Sporting Gijon game and will not make substitutions because they play Manchester United next, but that is a lie, a tactical lie to mislead the opposition.
He is going to probably make few substitutions and expect Soldado to play for Aduriz, Fernandes to play for Tino, Jordi Alba for Mathieu and maybe even see Marius play for the first time.

Probable starting line-up:
Cezar; Bruno, Dealbert, Maduro, Alba; Joaquin, Albelda, Fernandes, Pablo, Chori; Soldado

My starting line-up: 
Cezar; Bruno, Dealbert, Maduro, Alba; Pablo, Albelda, Fernandes, Feghuoli, Chori; Soldado

Result prediction:
Sporting Gijon 1-3 Valencia CF

The official players traveling to Sporting will be:
GK: Cezar, Moya
DEF: Bruno, Ricardo Costa, David Navarro, Maduro, Dealbert, Mathieu.
MID: Jordi Alba, Manuel Fernandes, Tino Costa, Pablo Hernández, Mehmet Topal.
ATT: Feghouli, Alejandro Domínguez, Juan Mata, Soldado y Aduriz

Hercuels 1-2 Valencia CF

First of all, my prediction of the result came true, I predicted a tough and close victory for Valencia and that was the case, I also predicted 2-1 for Valencia and that came true also. So I'm glad about my prediction and glad that Valencia won the game against the bitter rival Hercules.

It was a strange opening after only 1 minute and around 20 seconds Juan Mata opened the scoring for Valencia. He met a fine cross from Pablo I think (sorry, watched the game on internet with bad quality) and shot from a difficult angle, but managed to find the net. It was 1-0 for Valencia CF.

Hercules than had two chances, but one was saved from Cezar and one went to the side of the goal. Than came in Joaquin with a great solo run, passed the ball to Mata and this one to Pablo who than fired a long range shot and the ball went in, it was 2-0 for Valencia.

Hercules had one more try at goal, but Cezar was superb once again and saved Valencia. Than came in Trezeguet who tried to cross the ball to the penalty area but it hit Navarro on the hand and it was penalty for Hercules. Trezeguet took the penalty and converted it to goal, Hercules managed 1 goal back.

Five minutes in the second half Navarro and a Hercules player collided, but unfortunately Navarro took the worse end as he ended up injured and with a second yellow card, which meant automatic red card.
Valencia were now with 10 players and it was all Hercules from than on. They had numerous chances, but Cezar made several saves to deny Hercules.

The game ended Hercules 1-2 Valencia and it was a hard fought victory for Valencia.





Player ratings:
Cezar - 8.5: Made countless saves and was the main man, why Valencia won.
Miguel - 6: Not a bad performance, but after Valencia went one man down he had to stay only in defense.
Maduro - 5.5: Not the best performance, between him and Navarro they made several mistakes that could have easily cost Valencia the game.
Navarro - 4.5: Did not play intentionally with hand, but it was a penalty never the less, than maybe unlucky to pick a second yellow card and that was a mistake from the referee, but should have been more careful.
Mathieu - 4.5: Had problems all night long, made few really bad mistakes and lucky none of his mistakes didn't result in goals.
Joaquin - 6: Good performance in the first half, had to play more defensively in the second half due to being one man down.
Topal - 6.5: Great performance for Topal, made numerous tackles and interceptions and was probably the most solid player in this match.
Tino Costa - 5.5: Did not insert his influence and Valencia had pretty bad possession and this was in the first half, in the second with one man down he was lost and early substituted.
Pablo - 7: Had an assist for Mata's goal and than managed to score a goal himslef, great performance.
Mata - 6: Decent performance from Mata, scored a great goal and made the assist for the second, but went in and out of the game and was only on occasion dangerous, more is expected from him.
Soldado - 5.5: Did not have many chances, but could have done better. Not his best match.

Subs:
Dealbert - 6: Came in after Navarro got a red card and was decent in defense.
Chori - 6.5: Did well considering the position Valencia was in.
Fernandes - 6: Did better at least offensively than Tino Costa and run a lot to cover for the defense also.

Technical data:


Hércules 1: Calatayud, Paz, Drenthe, Aguilar, Peña, Trezeguet, Fritzler, Valdez (Portillo, min. 68), Cortés, Pamarot и T. Gomes (Tote, min. 64).

Valencia CF 2: César, Maduro, Navarro, Topal, Joaquín, Soldado (Domínguez, min. 61), Mata (Dealbert, min. 54), Pablo, Mathieu, Miguel и Tino Costa (Fernandes, min. 73).
Goals:
0-1 Min. 2 Mata
0-2 Min 22 Pablo
1-2 Min. 42 Trezeguet

Official Valencia CF squad for the match against Hercules

We know the official 18 players that will feature against Hercules.

Ever Banega and Vicente are out due to injury, R. Costa will be rested and in his place is the returning Dealbert. Feghuoli, Alba and Stankevicious were also left out of the squad.

Valencia CF squad vs Hercules:
Goalkeepers: César, Moyà

Defense: Miguel, Bruno, Navarro, Maduro, Dealbert i Mathieu

Midfield: Albelda, Topal, Tino Costa, Fernandes, Joaquín, Pablo Hernández, Mata

Attack: Alejandro Domínguez, Soldado i Aduriz

Hercules vs Valencia CF match preview

On Sunday night Hercules will host Valencia after 13 years of pause, since Hercules played in lower divisions than Valencia. The two teams and fans have incredible rivalry going on for decades, so expect this to be a fierce match, of not on the field, than on the stands.

Hercules are coming off from a surprising and incredible victory over Barcelona. Hercules managed to get some talented players this summer, namely Trezeguet from Juventus and Drenthe from R. Madrid, so they are no push overs. Even without these players Hercules seem to be tactically sound after two games and are going to prove to be tough opponents.

Valencia on the other side are coming off of a splendid victory over Bursaspor in the Uefa Champions League. They trashed the Turkish champions with 4 goals to zero. Valencia also has two wins in La Liga from two games and will look to continue their good form.
While the win over Bursaspor is great, the team should not loose focus and get over confident, instead the team must work hard and prepare best for this match. Tino Costa also had a lot of praise for his performance against Bursaspor and impressed many journalists, experts and fans, but not me. I'm still cautious and I will only consider him as a great player if he plays brilliantly for a month. He has only played 2 games, one after coming off for the injured Banega and one in the Champions League, so that's 160 minutes total.
He needs to show his worth over several games and perform consistently all the time.

Probable line-up: Cezar; Miguel, Maduro, R. Costa, Mathieu; Joaquin, Albelda, Tino Costa, Pablo; Mata, Aduriz.

My thought on the best line-up: Same as above, but instead of Mata I would put Chori Dominguez.

Result prediction: Hercules 1-2 Valencia CF

Valencia CF coach Unai Emery thrilled with victory over Bursaspor

Valencia coach Unai Emery was thrilled with the win over Bursaspor. If you watched the game, you know this is a no brainier, Valencia t-shirt $50, full Valencia dress $100, seeing Emery's reaction after the second goal priceless.
He almost broke his notepad as he started trashing it on the table, than jumping all around he terrace in which he was sitting.
After the match he stated that he was thrilled with the win and how the players played. He had special praise for Tino Costa, who scored the opening goal, a stunner from 35 yards out and influencing the second goal, after his free kick hit the bar and Aduriz managed to head the rebound.

This was Unai Emery first game and first win in the Uefa Champions League and hopefully he continues winning.

Next match in the Champions League is against Manchester United on home soil.

Bursaspor 0-4 Valencia CF match report

Valencia CF won their debut Champions League game against Turkish champions Bursaspor by 4 goals to zero.

Tino Costa and Mehmet Topal were in the center of the field, Topal replacing Albelda and Tino Costa covering for Ever Banega, and both players had much to prove.
The game started in a pretty erratic fashion, with neither team managing to take firm control of the match. The first chance came for Bursaspor who had a shot on goal. As time passed Valencia took more control of the match and started playing really well.
In the 16th minute Tino Costa fires a powerful shot with his left foot and ended in Buraspor net, the goalkeeper had no chance.
After the goal Valencia got really comfortable and had several runs towards Bursaspor goal, but no firm chance arrived.
41st minute Valencia double the lead and again Costa is in the thick of it as his beautifully-struck free-kick hits the upright. With Dimitar Ivankov well-beaten Aritz Aduriz swoops to head the rebound into the empty net.
Joaquin was quite active on the Right side and had couple of runs till the end, but nothing could come out of it.

The second half started much in Bursaspor favor, clearly determined to level the score. They were very dangerous and were having rins towards Cezar goal constantly, but just when it seemed they are about to score Pablo Hernandez scores in the 68th minute to tripple Valencia's lead. After a mess in Bursaspor 16th meters field the ball luckily came to Pablo who pushed the ball towards the goal and it went in.
From the third goal on it was mostly Valencia, who although did not have much possession had numerous chance to increase the result.
In the 73rd minute Soldado came in Aritz Aduriz who finished his job with a well taken header for the second Valencia goal.
Joaquin had several chance to score, but unfortunately he didn't manage to score and he had really good chances, particularity a smart back-pass from Pablo to find Joaquin and this one only managed to shoot wide.

In the 76th minute in a half counter attack Chori unleashed a well timed through ball towards Soldado who than managed to score with ease for a result of 4-0 for Valencia.

Than came several substitutions Mata in for Chori and Manuel Fernandes for Tino Costa and the match slowed down and both teams just waited for the end to come.

In the end Bursaspor 0-4 Valencia CF.

Technical data:
Bursaspor 0: Ivankov, Gökcek Vederson, Omer Erdogan, Huseyin Cimsir (Sercan Yildirim, min. 59), Insúa, Volkan Sen, Ozan Ipek, Ali Tandogan, Ergic, Núñez (Turgay Bahadir, min. 59) and Stepanov.

Valencia CF 4: César, Bruno, Navarro, Topal, Joaquín, Domínguez, Aduriz (Soldado, min. 71), Pablo, Ricardo Costa, Mathieu and Tino Costa (Fernandes, min. 81).

Goals: 0-1 Min. 15 Tino Costa, 0-2 Min. 40 Aduriz, 0-3 Min. 67 Pablo, 0-4 Min. 76 Soldado

My prediction felt short in the water, but I'm happy since Valencia trashed Bursaspor and played a great match.

Uefa Champions League group C standings after matchday 1:
Valencia 3 points, Man. U. 1 point, Rangers 1 point, Bursaspor 0 points.

Player Ratings:
Cezar - 6: Didn't have too much to do, but great when called upon.
Bruno - 6: Great in defense, but did not support Joaquin well and made a horrible lapse towards the end of the match.
Navarro - 6: Good display but still needs improving.
R. Costa - 6: Same as Navarro, good display but will need to up his game for the likes on Manchester United.
Mathieu - 6: Good at defending and good going forward, but did have some problems at times.
Joaquin 6.5: Would have had better score if he had taken his chances, otherwise he had a great game.
Topal - 6: Not the brightest of performance and pretty anonymous, but did well to support the defense.
Tino Costa - 8.5: Great performance and the man of the match tonight. He scored the first goal with a powerful 35 meters shot and hit the cross-bar from a free kick which lead to the seconds goal. Had good vision and passing and will be feeling great about his performance tonight.
Pablo 7.5: He was quite isolated in the first half but improved a lot in the second half. Was moving everywhere, combined well with the rest, scored a goal and had a wonderful backpass to Joaquin.
Chori - 7.5: Inspiring game from Chori. He clearly has some ways to go still, but it will come with play time. Was involved in a lot of Valencia attacks, opened spaces for his team mates and had the assist for the forth goal.
Aduriz - 7.5: Great movement and placement, took his his chance with a good header after Tino's free kick hit the woodwork and the ball bounced to him.

Subs:
Soldado - 7.5: He came in and scored a goal, what more could anyone asked. And it was a well taken goal and had the perfect sense to avoid an offside ruling leading up to his goal.
Mata - 6: Didn't achieve anything for the time he had, except one good cross to Soldado. Should be more explosive and effective if he is to keep his starting place.
Manuel Fernandes - 4: Came in the last minutes of the game but did not put a foot right in the time he had. Should have taken command of the center field and dictate play but he got lost.

Preview: Bursaspor vs Valencia CF

Valencia CF has landed earlier today in Turkey. The team was awaited by Bursaspor club officials and Turkish media and than escorted with police to their hotel where the players will rest before having a light training session.
This is Bursaspor first Champions League game, after they surprisingly became Turkish champions last season. This means they are inexperienced in these kind of competitions, but the home support will surely give them some confidence.
Valencia on the other hand are also quite inexperienced, with only few players having played in the Champions League, the most experience one being Albelda, followed by Vicente, Joaquin, R. Costa, Navarro and Miguel.

Tomorrow will be a tough game for Valencia and with the absence of Ever Banega who got injured in the Racing match there will surely be a huge hole in the midfield. Tino Costa played good after coming in for Banega, but he is far from the perfect replacement. Unai Emery will have to choose between Topal who is Turkish and knows the team best, Albelda who has the most experience in the CL and Tino Costa who is the most offensive player of the three, but lacks experience and playmaker skills that Banega for example possess.Manuel Fernandes has a very limited experience, I believe he has only played a total of about 90 minutes, but could very well be in contention for a starting place.

This is also Unai Emery's first Champions League game, but the history says that all Valencia managers have managed to win their first game in international competition, so hopefully this will be the case tomorrow.

Unai Emery may also choose the 4-3-3 formation tomorrow with theoretically very strong midfield, but knowing how it doesn't suit Valencia at all, I'm not sure if Emery will risk it.

Possible formation:
Guaita; Miguel, Navarro, R. Costa, Mathieu; Topal, Fernandes, Feghuoli, Pablo, Chori; Soldado.

My thoughts on the best formation:
Cezar; Miguel, Maduro, R. Costa, Mathieu; Albelda, Topal, Joaquin, Pablo, Chori; Aduriz.

Result prediction:
Buraspor 1-2 Valencia

Valencia CF 1-0 Racing Santander

Valencia won their second game of the season in front of the Mestalla fans.
It was a spectacular game, full of chances, shots and crazy but very interesting moves and mostly from the Valencia players.
The game started very energetically with Valencia immediately having few chances. Mata and Joaquin were combining well on the right side and Valencia had few shots on goal. With that came a great  through ball to Aduriz, but Racing goalkeeper was just a millisecond faster to it.
Valencia had most of the play when in the 22nd minute Ever Banega was injured after a challenge. Tino Costa replaced him, but Valencia didn't loose any of its attacking proves.
Racing had two or three chances of their own, but Cezar as always was there to save the day.

Just before the half time whistle, Mata got the ball, made a short move left and unleashed a great cross than found Maduro, who headed the goal in Racing's goal and it was 1-0 for Valencia.

After the break Valencia came out with a furious tempo, Joaquin had several runs on the right side but his final pass was somewhat missing. Than Vicente woke up on the left side and he and Jordi Alba combined well to create couple of scoring opportunities.
One chance in particular was when Jordi put a through ball to Vicente, who than got in the opponents 16th meters and made a great pass to Aduriz who had a clear sight and shot on goal, but instead of shooting with his left foot, he moved a little to set up to shoot with his right and missed the goal.
Racing had one scary chance when a player of their got alone in front of Valencias goal, but Cezar made a miraculous save once again and saved the day, already numerous times in this game alone.

Chori than came in for Mata and he immediately had a huge impact, he dribbled past few opponents and tried to make a pass, but the pass didn't find any Valencia player.
Than Joaquin tried a long range effort, but the Racing goalkeeper saved, but the ball went wild and Chori got a hold of it and he tried another pass to find a Valencia player, but it wasn't to be.
The game finished Valencia 1 - 0 Racing.

Anyways a great game for Valencia, very attacking display and great combinations between the players, their dedication and motivation is huge and all have great physical and fitness level than allowed them to run and never stop and fight for every ball for the entire 90 minutes.

Technical data:
Valencia CF: César, Maduro, Albelda, Joaquín, Mata (Domínguez, min. 70), Aduriz, Vicente (Mathieu, min. 87), Ricardo Costa, Ever (Tino Costa, min. 24), Miguel and Jordi Alba.

Racing: Toño, Henrique, Cisma, Arana (Ariel, min. 67), Colsa, Munitis (Adrián, min. 79), Rosenberg, Francis, Kennedy, Torrejón and Diop.

Goals: 1-0 Min. 46 Maduro

Players ratings:
Cezar - 9: Outstanding performance for the veteran goalkeeper, saved Valencia numerous times in this game.
Miguel - 7: Solid defensively, intercepted few balls and generally marked his man well, also supported Joaquin decently in attack.
Maduro - 6.5: Good performance from Maduro, in his place when he needed to be and worked well with Ricardo Costa.
R. Costa - 6.5: Same as Maduro, had a good game and the defense didn't allow any goals.
Jordi Alba - 8.5: Was all over the field, defense, midfield, attack and performed all his duties admirably. His dedication and motivation was visable throught the match and he impressed me and surely the coach. Was also a menace for Racing when going in attack and had several great combos with Vicente.
Albelda - 7: Same as always, nothing flashy, nothing extraordinary, but kept Racing attacks in check and brake up their play to the best of his ability.
Ever Banega - N/A: Didn't play much at all, only 22 minutes when he was injured and replaced.
Joaquin - 7.5: Once again a great performance, he really is starting to shine this season.
Vicente - 8: Vicente had a great night, although he was pretty annonoumous in the first half, he got way better in the second half. Combined well with Alba and created few chances that should have been goals.
Mata - 6.5: Good performance from Mata, a lot better than his last performance, had a shot and provided the assist for the only goal for Valencia.
Aduriz - 5.5: Poor display from Aduriz, he ran well, got in great positions, but his finishing let him down majorly in this game. If he had scored his chances it could have easily been 3 or 4 goals for Valencia.

Subs:
Tino Costa - 7: Good replacement for Banega, but he still needs a lot of work. Valencia lost much of the ball and possession with him instead of Banega, but improved as the game wore on.
Chori - 7: Had around 30 minutes to create some chances and that's what he did.Mata place in the first eleven looks more under pressure from every corner.
Mathieu -N/A: Only played 3 minutes plus stoppage time.

Valencia CF vs Racing preview

Valencia started the season win a solid 3-1 win against Malaga and will be hoping to continue their good form this Saturday, 11th October, on home terrain against Racing Santander.
A lot has happened this week and actually it was all good news.

Ever Banega played 90 minutes for Argentina as they trashed World Cup Champions Spain 4-1.
He had an amazing game and he is surely a standard player for Argentina, if current Argentina coach gets a contract.

Manuel Fernandes played 90 minutes for Portugal in what was a shocking loss for Portugal against Norway. Fernandes played good, but I think he didn't contribute much to the attack.

Juan Mata played for Spain U-21 as Spain-U-21 managed a 1-0 win.

Chori Dominguez is back from injury and is training with the rest of the squad, Bruno also recovered from injury, Mathieu who got a small injury during the Malaga match is fully recovered and most importantly Roberto Soldado has made a good and faster than expected recovery and will be available for selection for the match against Racing.

Valencia also played a friendly match against CD Alcoyano on Tuesday with several youth players called up for the game. Valencia won the game 1-0. Unai Emery used the 4-3-3 system for that game, but as you've heard countless times till now, it didn't work very good.
The best player agains Alcoyano was Joaquin who seems to have rediscovered his old form and hopefully he will have the best form for the whole season.

Unai Emery is probably going to choose the same starting line-up he choose for the Malaga game, with the only obvious choices he will need to make is wheather to play Soldado or Aduriz up front and Vicente or Pablo or Mata on the left.
Its been said that Unai Emery wants to play Mata on the left wing again after few unimpressive games from Mata playing just behind the strikers.

Valencia CF squad:

Goalkeepers: César Sánchez, Vicente Guaita

Defense: Miguel Brito, Ricardo Costa, Ángel Dealbert, Hedwiges Maduro, Jérémy Mathieu, Jordi Alba

Midfield: David Albelda, Éver Banega, Tino Costa, Pablo Hernández, Joaquín Sánchez, Vicente Rodríguez, Juan Mata

Strikers: Chori Domínguez, Aritz Aduriz, Roberto Soldado
Anyways here is the probable starting squad:
Cezar; Miguel, Navarro, Costa, Mathieu; Albelda, Banega, Pablo, Mata, Joaquin; Aduriz

Alternatively Emery can play Mata on the left with Chori just behind the main striker, but with Chori just coming off from a long injury I'm not sure if Emery will risk him.

Result prediction:
Valencia CF 3-1 Racing Santander

Valencia CF short view for the weekend

Just five more days until we see Valencia play again against Racing. I'm looking forward to Saturday night and hoping that Valencia can impress again.
These points against smaller teams in the beginning of the season are of utmost importance that will allow us to go more confident into bigger matches and also keep track with Barcelona.
I think that this year we have the most complete squad, a squad that can play offensively and defensively depending on the game. While last year we had Villa and Silva, we depended too much on them and players often relied only on them to do miracles and win games.
This year however all that is changed, players have no more cover and with the arrivals of the new ambitious players there is fight for starting place at each position.

I think our attack is the most scary thing we have this year. Between Soldado, Aduriz, Chori, Mata, Joaquin, Pablo, Vicente and even Jordi Alba and Feghuoli we have tons of options and great talents.

With the arrival of Marius we've also strengthen our defense, and although many will say Marius is only a bench player to cover for an already bench player, I think differently. Firstly he adds more depth to the defense in pure numbers, secondly he is a very physical player so he can just push away most opposition attackers that lack the necessary agility and speed. So he may not be the best defender, but he can provide great cover especially when injuries start to occur.

Next up is Manuel Fernandes. He was almost set to leave for Malaga, but he refused to go there and I'm glad he stayed. While his staying will give Unai Emery many headaches as to who to play in midfield with so many options available to him, Fernandes can give Tino Costa a run for his money and this will create a fierce competition between the two that will enable them to improve.
With some places still up for grabs, it creates a healthy atmosphere of friendly competition that will only serve to strengthen Valencia as a team and we all want a strong and competitive Valencia that can bring some happiness to our life's. Having said all that we should not loose our sight and objectives, Valencia president Llorente is right when he says our primary objective is to finish into Champions League spot. If Valencia manage to be La Liga champions that would be great, but Valencia must set its objectives right and work towards them. Anything more would be a big plus.

So there you have it, in the following days there will be articles about how our Valencia players did on international duty. I'm hoping to see Banega start for Argentina vs Spain.