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.