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