Atletico Madrid vs Valencia CF - Match Preview

One of the biggest rivalry Valencia CF has is with Atletico Madrid. While teams like Hercules and Levante are the historical rivals, they have barely played against Valencia and realistically the rivalry stands as one of a more historical value than it really is.
The rivalry with Atletico Madrid is real though, since these are two teams that have been almost equally successful through the history of the Spanish league and have always exchanged punches. Valencia is the one with a slight advantage in success, but Atletico is always trying to overcome Valencia.

These two teams have played 141 matches against each others and both clubs have 52 wins each. In fact in recent times these two have been so equal that last season, as well as this one all matches, but one have ended in a draw. Yes, the only reason Atletico Madrid advanced in the Uefa Cup, now the Europa cup is because of the away goal rule.

This season Valencia has a chance to revenge last seasons Uefa cup dismissal from Atletico Madrid by beating them on their home ground in front of their own fans. Valencia has so far had a quite well season, while Atletico Madrid has been struggling a bit and are under pressure to perform and bring in good results.

Atletico Madrid currently sit at 8th position on the table with 30 points, 14 less than Valencia CF who sit at 4th spot, only 1 point behind Villarreal.
Atletico Madrid has scored 31 goals and conceded 29 goals, which is a pretty good result statistically speaking, the problem is that they have conceded goals when drawing and thus resulting in a loss and no points.

Atletico Madrid squad: to be announced...


Valencia CF on the other hand are one point behind 3rd placed Villarreal and are on a unbeaten run of 8 matches. Everyone will want to continue this streak and with the way Atletico Madrid have been playing, a win is also not that far off.

Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Guaita, Saúl.
Defense: Miguel , Bruno, David Navarro, Stankevicius, Ricardo Costa, Dealbert, Jordi Alba.
Midfield: Maduro, Topal, Tino Costa, Pablo, Joaquín, Vicente.
Attack: Jonas, Domínguez, Aduriz, Soldado.

Valencia CF Technical:
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line up: Guaita; Miguel, Stankevicious, R. Costa, Alba; Topal, Tino Costa, Joaquin, Vicente, Chori, Soldado.
Tactics: N/A
To tell you the truth, I have no idea what formation Emery is going to use or the tactics for probably the only second time in the season.
Valencia is playing away and from one side Emery could go the safe route and establish a 4-2-3-1 formation, or he could really open up and set up the 4-4-2 formation, as we now have the players. We have 4 attackers and we can not fear one not playing well or getting injured, since we have it covered.

Result prediction:
Atletico Madrid 1-2 Valencia CF
These teams have more draws in recent times than Barcelona has wins. Depending on how we open up this match I expect either a draw or a victory. Historically I would call this a draw, especially since Valencia play away from home, but Atletico Madrid have been playing really poorly and I hope Valencia can take advantage of it and win.

Valencia CF earns 1/4th of Barcelona and Real Madrd

Deloitte’s annual report on European football revenues has been released, and it reveals that once again Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona top the game’s money league.

I think you guessed who the top two would be, its not that hard to guess considering all stuff.

1st. Real Madrid; Revenue: €438.6m. Last year €401.4m
2nd Barcelona; Revenue: €398.1m. Last year €365.9m
3rd Manchester United: Revenue €349.8m. (€327m) 

As you can see the biggest money clubs are Barcelona and Real Madrid and incase someone was wondering why and how Spanish league was a 2 horse race, here is your answer - money. Only Real M. and Barca can purchase the best world players and it doesn't matter if they are 100 million euros or 40 million euros, they can do it. In fact Sandro Rosell(barca president) said he was planning a 60 million euros offer for Cesc Fabregas in the upcoming summer.


Valencia on the other hand gets about 40 million euros for TV rights, it gets about 40 million from ticket sales, it gets around 5 million for accessories and an additional 5-10 millions from sponsorship deals.


So all accounted for Valencia earns around 90-100 million euros per season, of course much depending on the success of the season.


I think its safe to say that Spanish league wont be competitive for at least another few years.

Valencia CF players called on international duty

Few Valencia CF players have been called for international duty for their respective countries.

First up is Ever Banega who has been called for the Argentina national team and seems likely that he is going to start for Argentina in the friendly against Portugal. He and Mascherano have formed a good partnership in the middle for Argentina.

Ricardo Costa also got into Portugal's squad, after Real Madrid's Ricardo Carvlaho sustained an injury. Ricardo gave an interview just several days earlier, saying how he would like to be called up for Portugal national squad and he got his chance.

Maduro is also called up for the Holland national squad and he seems to be becoming a regular player for Holland. Maduro created the chance and provided the assist that led to the only goal in Holland's last match, in which they won 1-0.

Jeremy Mathieu once again was not called for French national squad, Manuel Fernandes lost his place in the Portugal national squad after the change of coaches there, Topal was also overlooked by Guus Hiddink for Turkey national squad and Del Bosque did not call up Pablo, Soldado or Aduriz for Spain, even though his squad has been reduced to 20 man from injuries. Mata is injured and he also won't make the Spanish team, although this may be a good thing, since Valencia play in the Champions League very soon against Schalke 04 and will need all players rested, fit and injuries-free.

Valencia CF 2-0 Hercules CF - Match Report

Valencia CF had a great weekend, after every possible result going its way, from Villarreal loosing, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla and Espanyol all loosing and allowing Valencia CF with 3 points to catch up to Villarreal, as well as get away from the closest club behind it, Espanyol.

It was all down to Valencia CF to get the 3 points and climb to only 1 point behind Villarreal and escape Espanyol and right now Atletico Bilbao, who after their win are one point ahead of Espanyol.


Unai Emery decided to go with the formation that he used in the second half in the last match with few minor changes to the line-up. For example Topal took Maduro's place as a defensive midfielder and Bruno took Miguel's place, since Miguel has been hit with big personal problems and is facing 5 years in jail.


The match started with low tempo, though as early as the 4th minute Tino Costa had a shot on goal, but the ball went wide.

Valencia CF was having most of the possession and was slowly pushing towards Hercules goal. In the 12th minute Ever Banega also tried his luck with a long range effort, but his shot went wide also.

Hercules managed a rare counter attack in the 18th minute and tried to threaten Valencia's goal, but couldn't really make anything out of it.

Valencia was having control of the ball, but the chances weren't easy to come by. Banega tried a long pass to Bruno in a dangerous area to Hercules, but Bruno failed to control the ball and it went into goal kick.
Hercules countered and after a good link-up Abel send a powerful shot towards Valencia's goal, but it went over the crossbar.

Valencia had another good chance to score a goal in the 38th minute after a corner by Tino found Topal, but his shot only managed to hit the bar even though he shot from just few meters away from goal.

The match seemed destined to finish 0-0 at half time, but then Navarro send a pass to Soldado who made a superb pass through a Hercules defender legs and found Aduriz and this one somehow luckily scored a goal in the 42th minute. In fact I'm not even sure if Aduriz touched the ball, though it somehow went into the net. Magic maybe?


The second half started with Valencia again in control of the ball and once again this will pay off, as Tino Costa managed to score a goal in the 53rd minute of the match from a well taken free kick.

After the second goal Valencia seemed to go down in lower gear and the play eased up a  bit with neither side really pushing towards goal and a good 15 minuted were played solely in the middle of the field. A rare chance came towards Soldado who headed the ball towards goal, but it didn't went in.


Aduriz had a claim for a penalty in the 75th minute after he fell down in the penalty area, but realistically he failed to make the most of a great pass to him and should have scored a goal then.

Hercules mounted a good attack in the closing stages of the match after a Stankevicious mess. As it turns out Stankevicious decided to dribble against a Hercules player with the goal totally exposed and lost the ball. After a rebound from Topal the ball came to one of Hercules attackers, but Guaita made a terrific save to deny Hercules a goal.

Valencia had 2 more chances to increase the score after Soldado managed to steal a ball from a Hercules defender, managed to get the ball flying in the air and as the ball was coming down he and substitute Joaquin mixed up, made a mess and even though Soldado managed to shoot at Hercules goal the same player who lost the ball managed to save his goal. Alba then made a good pass to Soldado, but Soldado only managed to shoot straight in the goalkeeper.

Ultimatelly the match ended in a 2-0 victory for Valencia, a victory that puts it into a good position with just 1 less point than Villarreal.

Technical Details:
Valencia CF (2): Guaita; Bruno, Stankevicius, Navarro, Mathieu; Éver (Joaquín, min. 85), Tino Costa, Topal, Domínguez (Isco, min 75); Soldado y Aduriz (Jordi Alba, min. 84).

Hércules CF (0): Calatayud; Cortés, Juanra, Rodríguez, Peña (Gomes, min. 39); Fritzler, Abel Aguilar (Drenthe, min. 62); Tote, Thomert (Rufete, min. 73), K. Femenía; Valdez.

Goals: 43min. 1-0 Aduriz; 52min. 2-0 Tino Costa.

Player Ratings:
Guaita 7 - Great save in the 81st minute to deny Hercules a goal. Had few more good saves.
Bruno 6.5 - Unspectacular but effective in the back, reasonably good going forward.
Navarro 6 - Did not have too much to do, but nothing really messy and did a good job.
Stankevicious 5.5 - Had a great match and then decided to dribble and gave Hercules the ball and a huge chance to score. Other than this huge mistake he had a great match overall.
Mathieu 7 - Solid defensively and offered good support going forward as well, had a bit more trouble later on when Drenthe came in for Hercules, but still won most of the duels.
Topal 6 - Very good positioning, kept things simple with short safe passes and helped out in defense when needed.
Banega 7 - The driving force in the midfield, spread the ball well and had great one-two passes with Tino. Had few shots, but most importantly kept possession for Valencia.
Tino 7.5 - Scored a superb goal as usual, very active all over the field, fought for every ball and came back sprinting to help in defense every time.
Chori 6 - Good showing, although not very influential. He had two great through passes that found their target, but regrettably the players would not use them.
Soldado 7 - Once again a great performance from Soldado. Unlucky not to get on the score board himself, but set up Aduriz goal with a superb pass and played really well, especially linking-up with Aduriz.
Aduriz 6 - Scored a goal, but failed to convert many opportunities. Found good positions, but as I've said he failed to convert many opportunities he had.
Subs:
Isco 5 - Had few touches with the ball, but you can see that he was very anxious and made several mistakes. He needs more confidence and more playing time in the first team obviously to iron out the mistakes and be more calm and confident.
Alba N/A - Not enough time
Joaquin N/A - Not enough time

Valencia CF vs Hercules CF - Match Preview

On February the 6th Valencia CF will welcome Hercules CF on the Mestalla in what would be yet another important match and pursuit for 3 points.

Valencia CF currently sits at 4th spot on the table with 41 points and will be looking to add 3 more points in this next match against Hercules and hopefully come closer to Villarreal, yet at the same time adding more points between Espanyol.

It is going to be hard to catch Villarreal even if Valencia CF wins, as Villarreal will have to loose points, but they play at home as well and are most likely to win. Valencia CF has some comfort because they are going to play against Villarreal, Barcelona, Sevilla and R. Madrid at home.

Valencia has had some good and some bad news this past week. Bad news is that Miguel is in a lot of trouble after its peen publicized that he faces 5 years in jail and then he showed his middle finger to reporters just 2 days ago, Mathieu has been offered take it or leave it contract extension, R. Costa got a red card in the last match and is not available for selection, and the likes of Cezar, Moya, Albelda and Mata are still recovering from their injuries.

Good news is that Navarro's red card was erased by the referee committee and will be available for selection, new arrival Jonas has been incorporated in the squad and is practicing with the rest of the team, Banega has been playing well and Chori has expressed motivation to keep on working in order to help the team.

Valencia is currently on a row of 7 unbeaten matches in La Liga and last time they've lost was against Real Madrid on December 5th in 2010. Valencia also just failed to make it to 6 straight wins after it only managed a draw against Racing.

Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Guaita, Saul.
Defense: Bruno, David Navarro, Dealbert, Stankevicius, Miguel, Mathieu, Jordi Alba.
Midfield: Topal, Banega, Maduro, Tino Costa, Isco, Pablo, Joaquin.
Attack: Dominguez, Soldado, Aduriz, Jonas.

Hercules CF on the other hand are currently sitting in 13th place on the table with 22 points and are struggling at the moment. In fact they've lost their last 3 matches and have lost quite a bit of ground in the mid table fight.

Hercules have conceded 34 goals and they have one of the worst defenses in the Spanish League, only better to Sevilla, Almeria and Malaga. They boost quite an attacking threat in the form of David Trezeguet and Nelson Valdez and between them they have scored 16 goals. Even though their two forwards are quite dangerous and have scored 16 goals between them, they are still overall at the middle of the pack in terms of goals scored.

Hercules main goal against Valencia will be to get a draw and stop their recent string of losses and with that get back on track for a mid table finish.

Hercules biggest problem right now and one that could endanger their plans for a draw is injuries to three of their central defenders Pamarot Noah, Abraham Paz and Momo Sarr. Hercules only have one central defender, Sergio Rodríguez, to face Valencia and their coach Esteban Vigo will have to find a way to overcome this problem.

Hercules CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Juan Calatayud, Piet Velthuizen, Unai Alba
Defense: Paco Peña, Juanra Cabrero, David Cortés, Sergio 'Rodri' Rodríguez
Midfield: Abel Aguilar, Cristian Hidalgo, Francisco Rufete, Matías Fritzler, Tiago Gomes, Rosyston Drenthe, Kiko Femenía, Olivier Thomert
Attack: David Trezeguet, Nelson Valdez, Javier Portillo, Tote López


Valencia CF Technical:
Formation: 4-1-2-1-2
Line up: Guaita; Miguel, Stankevicious, Navarro, Alba; Maduro, Tino, Banega, Chori, Soldado, Aduriz.
Tactics: Center field attacks, medium defensive line, hugh opposing team pressure, CF player in free role, position swaps between the midfield players.
I think its the most reasonable formation in order to keep possession and be threatening. We've seen that formations with one striker don't work and unless VCF plays 4-4-2 formation the wing players just don't seem to know how to play and this is why I think this is going to be the formation and player of choice for Unai Emery.

Result prediction:
Valencia CF 3-1 Hercules CF
Hercules have enough firepower upfront to hurt our defense knowing they have the experienced and reliable Trezeguet and the talented Valdez with his pace and trickery.
Even though I think our defense is going to concede a goal, Valencia CF should also have enough firepower upfront to score 3 goals and enough talent in the midfield to control the game.

Valencia's Miguel Brito never learns

Unai Emery stopping a fight

Few days ago a report emerged from a news paper about Valencia's right back Miguel Brito, the report claimed it had internal knowledge about a situation 2 years ago in which Miguel Brito shot with a gun towards a night club, after not being allowed to enter.
The report claims Miguel faces possible 5 years in jail and you would think Miguel would learn something from that, but no just 2 days after the report was published he was seen showing his middle finger towards media reporters.



He later claimed that he was not showing the middle fingers at the reporters, but at one specific man who supposedly "disrespected" him.
I think its too little, too late to try to defend itself and he should learn from his mistakes and not repeat them.

This is not Miguel's second time he has been in trouble, he has constantly been involved in assaults, accidents and other unlawful behavior.

Would the law finally catch up to Miguel? We'll need to wait and see.

I'm going to brake your neck! -Miguel Brito his usual self.

Chori Dominguez and Tino Costa interviews

Choriz Dominguez yesterday played against Racing after being left out of the squad for quite some time and he helped Valencia CF get a point. Chori was also in a situation about possibly moving to Juventus on loan.

He had this to say after the match "I was anxious all day as I was waiting for news about the possible loan move and knew that I would be removed from the squad if the deal was agreed upon. As soon as the coach told me that he counted on me, I knew I was staying in Valencia and my thoughts were on getting a positive result in the match."

He also think Valencia played better in the second half and may have even gotten a win: "We played well in the second half and we had chances to win the match, but unfortunately we only managed to get a point".

Chori also had good welcoming words for new Valencia arrival Jonas and said how this player can help Valencia.

Alberto Tino Costa also had some comments after the match and spoke of himself: "I'm pleased with my personal progress, but as a team we are not putting the best performance".
"We knew that if we score an early goal, we would have a chance to win, but we just couldn't do it and next week at the Mestalla we can't loose any points.

He also spoke of his fellow Argentinian Chori Dominguez:"Chori was very good tonight and with his arrival our play became much better and more fluent. I think there is place for him in the team yet".