Valencia CF vs FC Barcelona - Match Preview

Valencia CF vs FC Barcelona

Stadium: Mestalla

September 21st, 2011; 20:00CET

5th matchday, La Liga

Expected Attendance: 55.000

Coaches: Unai Emery and Josep Guardiola

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

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

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

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

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

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

Head to Head

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sporting Gijon 0-1 Valencia CF - Match Report

Sporting Gijon 0-1 Valencia CF

Possession: 40%-60%

Goals: Soldado

Assists: Jonas

The match started with a lot of back and forth attacks between the two teams, but neither side with a clear chance or opportunity towards goal.

The first 15 minutes of the match were basically more of the same, with most of the play being in the middle of the field, with the occasional forward array from both Valencia and Gijon.

The first chance came for Sporting Gijon as probably Rivera beat Bruno on the right side and passed the ball to an attacker, but Guaita reacted well and made a save.

The following minutes Valencia CF would put a foot on the ball and will get to 70% possession, but with all that possession it could not muster up much. Then in the 24th minute Banega dribbled past few Gijon players, but was finally fouled just on the line of the penalty area and the referee awarded a free kick. Canales took the freekick, but only managed to hit the wall.

In the 28th minute Gijon had a rare attack organized and Barral managed a shot towards goal, but the ball went wide.

Just a minute later Soldado would score a goal for Valencia CF. Pablo Hernandez would get a pass from Banega, he ran forward and then made a pass to the lone Jonas, but Jonas shot was momentarily saved, only for the rebound to found its way to Soldado, who scored with no problems.

32nd minute Rivera found enough space and shot towards goal, but Guaita was alert and cached the ball.

Canales would catch the ball from a bad pass from Juan Pablo, he would then try a through pass towards Jonas, the pass is blocked but the ball founds its way to Pablo, he sprints forward and then passes to Jonas, but he fails to score from a clear position. Sporting Gijon immediately returned the favor, but the the danger was immediately cleared. 

Just a minute before half time Barral shoots again towards Valencia goal after a free kick pass, but his shot goes over the goal. After this the referee blew the half time whistle.

The first 13 minutes from the second half went with very little action, just Valencia keeping the ball into its possession.

58th minute Guaita makes one more save after a long range shot by Barral. Just two minutes later De La Cuevas makes a great solo run on the right side, beating Pablo and Bruno and passes to Barral who shoots, but Guaita makes a great save.

Then in the 67th minute great pass from Banega to Soldado, he passes his marker and shoots, but Juan Pablo makes a great save.

Pablo Hernandez would have a long range effort in the 71th minute, the shot is weak, but he still manages to get a corner out of it.

Few minutes later there was a tripple oppurtunity for Valencia as Pablo passes to Aduriz and his shot is saved once, rebound goes to Piatti and he shoots, but its blocked, then ball goes to Aduriz once more and he fails to put it into the net once again.

82nd minute amazing save from Guaita, after an equally amazing lob by a Gijon player. Next 10 minutes were Sporting Gijon attacking ruthlesly and having pretty good opportunities, but Valencia CF holds and in the last seconds of the match even had an opportunity for goal as Aduriz got the ball, but his shot hit Gijon's goalkeeper. The referee blew the final time whistle.

Technical Details:

Sporting Gijón (0): Juan Pablo; Damián Suárez (Carmelo González, 78th min), Alberto Botía, Gregory Arnolin, Roberto Canella; Alberto Rivera, Sergio Alvarez, André Castro (Gastón Sangoy, 57th min); Nacho Novo (Alberto Lora, 57th min), Miguel de las Cuevas, David Barral.

Valencia CF (1): Vicente Guaita; Bruno Saltor, Adil Rami, Víctor Ruiz, Jordi Alba; David Albelda, Éver Banega; Pablo Hernández, Jonas Gonçalves (Pablo Piatti, 61st min), Sergio Canales (Tino Costa, 79th min); Roberto Soldado (Aritz Aduriz, 69th min).

Goal: 1-0 Roberto Soldado (30m).

Player Ratings:

Guaita 8 - Had quite a lot of saves in this match, 3 very dangerous shots he saved superbly and made several saves from long range shots. Great night for Guaita.

Bruno 5 - He was the weak link in defense and made quite a number of mistakes. Improved towards the end, but it was too little too late. Didn't offer much in attack either.

Rami 6.5 - 3rd match for him and Ruiz and third time no goals conceded. A bit slow in some situations, but made up with his positioning.

Ruiz 7 - Once again a bit sketchy at the start, but improved quickly and went on to be a rock in defense making several crucial interventions. 

Alba 6 - Did well in defense for the most part, wasn't involved much in the attack, although had trouble defensively towards the end.

Albelda 6 - Covered nice in the midfield and stopped few attacks from happening, but hid from the ball and failed to receive the ball or pass the ball much.

Banega 7 - Had a great match, kept possession superbly, spread the ball great, made few runs forward and opened up Gijon a bit, made a great pass to Soldado that should have been a goal, although he did misplace some passes and lost the ball few times in dangerous positions.

Pablo 6.5 - Wasn't really involved in the first half and only had sporadic runs and touches, but improved in the second half and caused quite a few problems for Gijon. Had few great and dangerous passes.

Jonas 5.5 - He was obviously was not fit enough to play or maybe this just wasn't his day. Failed to influence the match at all and missed a great opportunity to score.

Canales 6.5 - Great passing range and vision, came deep to get the ball and lnked up well with Banega and Pablo, but wasn't dangerous on the left and he tended to go in the middle.

Soldado 6 - Scored a goal, but was particularly wasteful with some good chances. Failed to use the most out of his chances and should have scored at least once more.

Subs:

Piatti 6 - Was very lively when he came on and added depth to the left side, but his final pass is lacking and went down too easily to be dangerous.

Aduriz 5.5 - Had 3 good chances to score but failed to capitalize on them. Other than that he was a lone figure up front as Gijon took more of the possession.

Tino Costa N/A - Not enough time

Sporting Gijon vs Valencia CF - Match Preview

Sporting Gijon vs Valencia CF

Stadium: El Molinón

September 17th, 2011; 18:00CET

4th matchday, La Liga

Expected attendance: 29.000

Coaches: Manuel Preciado and Unai Emery

Sporting Gijon will host Valencia CF this Sunday at their El Molinon stadium in this seasons 4th La Liga matchday. 

Sporting Gijon and Valencia CF have quite the history in recent years as Valencia CF has not been able to really beat Sporting Gijon too much. In fact these two clubs have played so many draws over the past years its really surreal. 

This just shows us that this is going to be a really tough match for Valencia and the players would have to give 100% percent and be really focused if they are to win this match. The problem is though that Valencia has 3 matches in 8 days coming up from 18th this month to 24th this month and its really hard competition against FC Barcelona and Sevilla.

So is Emery going to rest some players or is he going to make some kind of changes for example maybe give Maduro a chance and change the defense or maybe even try a 4-4-2 formation to go more aggressively in this match and try and win it early, its very hard to say.

Head to Head

Date	Home		Away	Competition
Feb 19, 2011	Valencia CF	0 : 0	Real Sporting de Gijón	Primera Division
Sep 25, 2010	Real Sporting de Gijón	0 : 2	Valencia CF	Primera Division
Feb 13, 2010	Real Sporting de Gijón	1 : 1	Valencia CF	Primera Division
Sep 20, 2009	Valencia CF	2 : 2	Real Sporting de Gijón	Primera Division
Apr 12, 2009	Real Sporting de Gijón	2 : 3	Valencia CF	Primera Division

Sporting Gijon is also known as Rojiblancos because of their red and white striped jerseys, their home ground is El Molinón stadium, the oldest professional football ground in Spain, in use since at least 1908.

Sporting de Gijón is chronologically the sixth-oldest club in La Liga 2010-11. The club ranks 15th in the official All-Time La Liga table and is one out of nine clubs in Spanish football to have never played below the second tier.

Sporting Gijon is coming to this match after two losses in La Liga at the hands of Osasuna and Real Sociedad and they are sitting in 19th position on the table right now. Against Real Sociedad they played at home and lost 2-1 and against Osasuna they played away and lost with the same result 2-1. This is certainly not the best start for them, but its to be expected they are relegation status team this season by many, but this shouldn't make it any easier to Valencia CF as Gijon always knows how to take points against us and no matter how bad they've played in past matches they are going to give Valencia CF a run for their money.

Sporting Gijon had an uneventful transfer window this summer and only brought 3 new players, with Ricardo Leon coming free, the other 2 for minimal transfer fees and they also had 1 player return from loan. They had 5 players leave their team and two of those players are Diego Castro and Jose Angel, two great players and this certainly weakens Gijon but again this shouldn't affect them much.

All in all I would say they are a bit weakened with the transfers they've done, but their core team is still there and maybe the new reinforcements will step up and really prove valuable to Sporting Gijon.

Sporting Gijon squad:
Goalkeepers: Juan Pablo, Iván Cuéllar
Defenders: Damián Suárez, Alberto Botía, Alberto Lora, Grégory Arnolin, Pedro Orfila, Roberto Canella
Midfielders: André Castro, Alberto Rivera, Ayoze García, Sebastián Eguren, Sergio Álvarez, Miguel de las Cuevas, Óscar Trejo
Forwards: Nacho Novo, Gastón Sangoy, David Barral

Valencia CF on the other hand are coming to this match sitting in second position on the table having beat Racing Santander in a thriller match 4-3 and then having beaten Atletico Madrid in a very tough match last week 1-0. Right now we are on equal point with Real Madrid, but its basically the beginning of the season so it doesn't mean much, but still if Valencia CF keeps itself in the top 3 for the first 5-6 games it would give momentum to finish better than last season.

Its going to be very hard staying with maximum points though as we face Sporting Gijon this Sunday and if we look at the history Valencia CF doesn't have too much luck in these encounters and we have 3 draws and 2 wins, but its even worse if we look at our 10 year history with Gijon, so there is no doubt they have been one of our toughest opponents in the last decade and have managed to steal a lot of points from us, considering they are one of those relegation fighting teams much of the time..

Valencia CF also comes from a disappointing draw against KRC Genk in the Champions League and the overall play wasn't that good either. Apart from a lot of possession we didn't manage to threaten their goal too much and only had two good chances to score, but failed to utilize them.

This is a tough match to predict in any sense, result wise, but also tactics wise as Valencia CF are facing Barcelona next and then just few days later Sevilla. So there is a question is Emery going to rest some players, will Tino costa play or will he be rested once again for Barcelona or will Soldado start again, what about the defense will Emery give a chance to Dealbert and Costa at the back. Its really tough because if he bring a B squad we may just draw or worse as we've seen with Genk, but if he comes out with the best squad will they not be tired for the next 2 matches against Barcelona and Sevilla who are just few days apart?

There was some bad news for Valencia CF as we've found out that Topal was injured on the shoulder in the match against Genk and will be out for 2 to 3 weeks. This means he certainly misses the next 3 matches.

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

Technical Details Sporting Gijon (probable setups):

Formation: ?

Line-up: Juan Pablo; Canella, Suarez, Botia, Hernandez, Castro, De Las Cuevas, Lora, Rivera, Alvarez, Barral, Sangoy.

Tactics: Low defensive line, park the bus, crosses and counter attacks.

Technical Details Valencia CF (probable setups):

Formation: 4-2-3-1

Line-up: Guaita; Bruno, Rami, Ruiz, Alba; Albelda, Tino; Pablo, Canales, Piatti; Aduriz.
Tactics: High defensive line, all round pressure, interchangeable attacking trio, mixed passing.

Result Prediction:

Sporting Gijon 0-1 Valencia CF

As history shows us this is going to be a very tough match and Gijon are most likely going to be very tough to crack. Having said that they've had a pretty weak start to La Liga and if Valencia CF scores a goal early we may just see a trashing.

Number 1 goalkeeper poll results

Well after 6 days of voting and exactly 40 votes casted in that time, you've decided that Vicente Guaita should be the number one goalkeeper over Diego Alves.

I must say I personally agree with the majority of people that Guaita should be the number one keeper, although if his form drops it won't be wrong to put Diego as started for few matches.

But either way both goalkeeprs will rotate quite a bit with Valencia CF being in 3 competitions.

KRC Genk 0-0 Valencia CF

Disappointing match tonight for all Valencia fans as the team only managed to draw against Belgian side Genk. I personally predicted 3-0 win for Valencia CF, but man was I wrong on this one.

Still I'm not too worried and I think we have good chances against both Leverkuzen and Chelsea. I watched Chelsea some on TV, but mostly Barcelona because they were the only ones on TV, but neither Chelsea or Bayern Leverkuzen look too great and lets not dwell too much on this match.

Overall we had the majority of possession, more than 65% procent, but we didn't manage to create many chances regardless. To me Piatti, Feghuoli and Parejo seemed out of their depth, either the the magnificence of the match caught up to them and they were nervous or they just aren't ready yet for top level competition.

There is not going to be a match report as I've missed all of the first half and even the second half I've watched on a crappy stream, so I'm in no position to write about the match and rate the players. For now you'd have to do with another great preview for Valencia's next match.

KRC Genk vs Valencia CF - Match Preview

kRC Genk vs Valencia CF

Stadium: Cristal Arena

1st fixture, Champions League

Expected attendance: 24.500

Coaches: Mario Been and Unai Emery

The first Champions League matchday is upon us and just as last season ended the new one begins. Last year Valencia CF managed to reach the round of 16 in the champions league and met Schalke 04 who was considered an easy opponent and the hopes were really high that Valencia CF would go through, but Schalke 04 turned out to be very resilient and defensively sound making it very hard to penetrate them and it didn't help that Aritz Aduriz had the worst match probably of his life, missing key chances to give Valencia CF the lead.

At Germany they held Valencia CF at 1-1 until Valencia put everything forward in an attempt to win and that's when on the counter attack Schalke scored 2 more goal to beat Valencia CF and almost make it look easy.

The new draw has been positive for Valencia CF, avoiding the major clubs and more importantly the group of death; group A. Valencia CF was drawn in group E along with Chelsea FC, Bayern Leverkusen and our first opponent KRC Genk from Belgium. 

In 2002–03, KRC Genk reached the Champions League group stages for the first time in their history. Although they came 4th, they impressed fans with draws against Real Madrid, AS Roma and AEK Athens.

Now KRC Genk reached the group stages of the UEFA Champions League for the second time in its history.

KRC Genk is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Genk in Belgian Limburg. Racing Genk plays in the Belgian Pro League and they have won 3 Belgian champion titles in 1998–99, in 2001–02 and in 2010–11 as well as 3 Belgian Cups, most recently in 2008–09. They qualified for the UEFA Champions League group stage, after beating Maccabi Haifa. They did so in the 2002–03 season, and finished 4th of their group with 4 points.

Right now KRC Genk are 8th place in the Jupiter league out of 16 teams with 2 wins, 3 draws and 1 loss for a total of 9 points. So its not been a perfect start for them and will look to bounce back as soon as possible, but ultimately with all due respect they are very likely to finish in 4th place in the group and Valencia should hopefully win both matches against Genk.

Genk have been a bit of shifters if I may call it that, in that they've never been consistent. One season they will qualify in Champions League and the next they will barely finish mid table. They also lack Champions League experience and this will work against them. The biggest thing to get out of the Champions League for Genk would be a 3rd place finish to qualify for Europa League and get as much money from the Champions League as possible.

Genk squad:
Sandomierski, Hubert, Hyland, Tozser, Vossen, Vanden Borre, Camus, Anele, Simaeys, Barda, Buffel, Nadson, Dugary, Durwael, Köteles, Kennedy, Ogunjimi, Lenz, Pudil and Limbombe.

Valencia CF are coming to this match confident in their ability to win and even though Valencia CF coach Unai Emery has said that Valencia is not going to take Genk lightly and that they can pose danger, he knows that this should be a comfortable win for Valencia CF and realistically anything else would be a pretty big surprise and disappointment, especially when Valencia has Bayern Leverkusen and Chelsea as the other competing clubs. There can be no room for disappointment and failure is not an option. This is a must win match if Valencia CF are to get out of the group stages and into the round of 16.

Valencia just won against Atletico Madrid in their 3rd match in La Liga, although technically second as the first one was postponed due to the players strike. Anyways the win against Atletico should give the players a boost in their confidence and they should come out blazing for the match against Genk.

Unai Emery rested Ever Banega and Mehmet Topal as they played against Racing and then went on international duty with their countries and should be really fresh for this match.
Bruno Saltor has come back from injury and would be ready for the Genk match although he is likely not to be risked, even though Emery has terrible relationship with Miguel.

We could also see Emery bring Maduro and Dani Parejo as substitutes for the first time and rest Jonas and Albelda. Or as the squad is announced Albelda is also going to be in it.

Valencia CF squad (updated 12.09.11):
Goalkeepers: Diego Alves, Guaita, Cristiano.

Defenders: Miguel, Barragan, Ricardo Costa, Rami, Víctor Ruiz, Mathieu, Jordi Alba.
Midfielders: Albelda, Maduro, Topal, Ever, Pablo, Feghouli, Parejo, Piatti, Canales.

Forwards: Aduriz, Soldado.

Technical Details KRC Genk (probable setups):
Formation: 4-4-2
Line-up: Koteles; Simaeys, Ngonka, Toszer, Hubert; Pudil, Nadson, Nwangnga, Barda; Buffel, Vossen.
Tactics: Low defensive line, double defensive line, wing attacks, crosses and counter attacks.

Technical Details Valencia CF (probable setups):
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Diego; Miguel, Rami, Ruiz, Alba; Topal, Banega; Feghuoli, Parejo, Canales; Aduriz.
Tactics: High defensive line, all round pressure, interchangeable midfield, conversion to 4-3-3, mixed passing.

Result Prediction:
KRC Genk 0-3 Valencia CF
As much as I think Genk shouldn't be taken lightly, its still impossible not to expect a fully open play by Valencia and a complete domination over Genk.They would be dangerous from counter attacks, but if the defense is solid then Valencia will win this 3-0 easily.

Valencia CF 1-0 Atletico Madrid - Match Report

Valencia CF 1-0 Atletico Madrid

Possesion: Valencia CF 43%-57% Atletico Madrid

Goals: 1 Soldado

Assists: 1 Miguel

Valencia CF just won its second match of the season in what was a very competitive match and a bit of a breath holder towards the end when Valencia CF was defending the 1 goal lead and Atletico Madrid ruthlessly attacking.

Unai Emery decided to rest Ever Banega and Topal so they could be ready for the Champions League match against Genk which is coming up this next week. 

Gregorio Manzano started with a 4-3-3 formation with their new start signing Falcao starting the match, along with Adrian and Reyes in the attack.

As soon as the match started Mathieu went forward and tried to pass the ball forward to Soldado and Pablo, this cause a bit of a mess before the Atletico penalty area, but the danger was cleared.

Later Piatti and Miguel combined on the right side and Miguel was quite up front and could have done something useful, but he decided to dribble and lost the ball.

After few minutes of just midfield play Mathieu made a solo run past three Atletico Madrid players, but his shot was innacurate and went wide of goal.

Albelda or Tino just 2 minutes later made a long through pass that found Soldado, who was basically left alone facing goal, but his shot was saved by Atletico goalkeeper Thibaut. Someone from the Atletico made a mistake trying to take the ball forward and Miguel stole the ball passed the ball towards Piatti, but he felt on the ground and the danger passed.

In the 17th minute Mathieu was once again surging forward from the left side, he crossed the ball to Soldado, but Miranda stole the ball from his legs and cleared the danger.

After a failed Atletico attack Piatti would get the ball on the counter, pass it to Pablo and this one cross it to Soldado who managed to make a pretty big miss there.

Atletico would push harder in the coming minutes and it would pay off as Adrian gets the ball alone in front of Guaita, courtesy of Albelda who played him onside, but Guaita would have a great reaction and save the goal.

Then in the 33rd minute Atletico has a counter attack in which Reyes shots but wide off goal.

Valencia CF would manage to get back the possession and mount an attack and once again it came from Mathieu on the left side who crossed the ball,m Soldado got into position and headed the ball but the goakleeper punched, but the ball would deflect to Pablo who passed in to the oncoming Jonas, but his shot would be miserable and go way off goal. 

First half ended zero to zero in what was a better half for Valencia CF as we had more chances to score, as well as one decent penalty claim.

Second half and Atletico Madrid would threaten immediately with a shot by Falcao, the ball hit someone and deflected and after a bit of a mix up in the penalty area the ball went between Rami and Guaita and finally Guaita claimed the ball.

Valencia CF would not be outdone and would score a goal in the 51st minute. Miguel gets the ball and makes a good cross in Atletico penalty area and Soldado went into the right position and headed the ball past Thibaut and into the net. Valencia CF was up 1-0 over Atletico Madrid.

After this there would be a lot of midfield battle and small semi-chances for both clubs, the most notable ones being in the 66th minute when Reyes makes a dangerous cross in Valencia penalty area, but the danger is cleared. Then Atletico would have a penalty claim after Rami pushed Gabi or someone, but the referee would waive play on.

Unai Emery would make changes and increase the defense a bit with the arrivals of Jordi Alba and Topal on the field. Atletico Madrid would then start attacking non stop and they would have a great chance to score in the 82nd minute, but Guaita makes an amazing save from a Reyes shot. 

Ultimately Valencia CF players would close out the match and beat Atletico Madrid in the 3rd matchday of the season. Valencia CF with this victory is currently in second position behind Real Madrid, after Barcelona only managed a draw tonight. 

Technical details:

Valencia CF(1): Vicente Guaita; Miguel Brito, Víctor Ruiz, Adil Rami, Jérémy Mathieu; David Albelda, Tino Costa (Mehmet Topal, Min. 65); Pablo Hernández, Jonas Gonçalves (Sergio Canales, Min. 70), Pablo Piatti (Jordi Alba, Min. 60); Roberto Soldado.

Atlético Madrid(0): Thibaut Courtois; Silvio Pereira, João Miranda, Álvaro Domínguez, Filipe Luis; Tiago Mendes (Diego Ribas, Min. 63), Mario Suarez (Juanfran Torres, Min. 77), Gabi Fernández; José Antonio Reyes, Radamel Falcao, Adrián López (Arda Turan, Min. 59).

Goals: 1-0 Roberto Soldado (Min. 51).

Player Ratings:
Guaita 6.5 - Had two great saves, not much else as he wasn't really tested, but made the saves when it mattered.
Miguel 7 - A bit shaky in defense at the start, but made up with good offensive runs and even though his passing was suspect at times he offered great depth on the right flank and provided the assist to Soldado's goal.
Rami 6 - Good showing tonight, wasn't perfect and there were some scary moments, but ultimatelly he and Ruiz didn't allow any goals.
Ruiz 6.5 - Had 2 suspect moves early on, one was a silly miss on the ball and was lucky the referee whistled a foul, but improved later on and made a dozen of good tackles and blocks.
Mathieu 8 (MotM) - Amazing display from the Frenchmen who played as a left winger tonight and yet did his defensive duties superbly. Constantly going forward and providing good crosses and passes and wasn't beaten one on one in defense.
Albelda 6.5 - Good game by the veteran who even though played Adrian onside early on it didn't result in a goal and went on to provide good cover for the defense without any mistakes.
Tino Costa 6.5 - Had a good game, provided an outlet for the wingers especially on the left, had a shot on goal and was decent in keeping possession.
Pablo 6 - Full of running tonight and tireless work in attack and defense, but apart from a pass to Jonas in the first half wasn't particularly threatening for Atletico.
Jonas 6 - Way weaker performance from last match, wasn't very effective in anything and even though he had few nice touches and passed also had a pretty bad miss and wasn't too dangerous.
Piatti 6 - He had few runs on the left and went into some good positions, but failed to capitalize on them and do much. Need to work on the final ball.
Soldado 6 - Scored the only goal in the match which is positive and was in good position early on to receive a pass and shoot towards Atletico goal, but also had a great chance to score and he missed miserably.
Substitutions:
Alba 6 - Went in when Atletico was fully attacking and didn't contribute any in attack, but added a bit more cover in the defense although he was beaten few times. Lucky to have had those attacks blocked by others.
Topal N/A - Not enough time to rate, although covered well at the back, but wasn't convincing.
Canales N/A - Not enough time, but he also wasn't very convincing in the time he had.