The match started with Tottenham being in control of the ball possession and Valencia CF was on the defensive, but the team was organized and Tottenham failed to orchestrate a dangerous attack. In fact it was Valencia CF that came to scoring first with a great chance by Feghuoli, then Paco and then Jonas who got the ball, run downward avoiding 2 Tottenham players and shooting at goal. He wasn't lucky with his shot the first time, but only few minutes later Paco and Jonas would play a fast one-two and Jonas would shoot from long range and score.
It was a shock to Tottenham who realistically had a lot more ball possession and a lot more efforts in attack as they had few shots at goal and wide off goal. First a shot off goal through the middle of the field and then a good attack started by Assou-Ekotto from the right and Tottenham players were able to shoot twice at Diego Alves who saved the goal.
It was Jonas who was the most dangerous in the first half with most of the attacking moves coming from him, with Guardado being reserved defending and Feghuoli drifting in attack. Paco Alcacer did have two chances, one after a failed shot by Feghuoli(possibly a pass)and he missed the ball and a header.
The midfield lacked punch, it allowed Tottenham to dominate, but there was no surprise here as with Tino Costa starting you should expect that. Again I was really disappointed by Tino Costa, his play was really sloppy, really stiff, with no runs through the middle, no good passing range, he just failed to spread the ball in any shape or form.
In the second half we can see Fernando Gago took the playmaker responsibility and we were instantly and visibly better in the middle, but the statistics showed it as well, and I'm impressed with Gago in his overall play, although I still don't consider him a defensive midfielder, he is more of a playmaker than Tino will ever be and has better vision and higher passing range than Tino Costa and possibly even Parejo.
About the 70th minute Pellegrino made few changes with Piati coming in for Alcacer and Parejo for Jonas and instantly there was success. My stream was laggy and really blurred so I couldn't see who made the pass, but I believe it was either Piatti or Parejo who just moments after arrival passed the ball to Feghuoli who ran from his marker and scored the second goal for Valencia CF.
At this point seeing Villas-Boas face you could see he realized he made the wrong choice of club and was wishing he's chosen Valencia CF over Tottenham.
Then to make his play even more miserable Tino Costa went into huge argument with the referee and even though nothing happened, after the free kick Tino decided for some more confrontation at which point he got a red card, leaving Valencia CF to 10 players.
Tottenham would have a decent chance through Towsend as he shot towards goal, but ultimately inaccurately and Valencia CF were able to close out the match at 2-0 with actually few more chances till the end.
Technical details:
Valencia CF (2): Alves; J.Pereira, V.Ruiz, R.Costa, Mathieu (Barragán, min 87); T.Costa, Gago (Albelda, min 89); Feghouli, Jonas (Piatti, min. 75), Guardado (Pablo Hernández, min. 85); Alcácer (Parejo, min. 75).
Tottenham (0): Friedel; Walker (Naughton, min. 78), Gallas, Vertonghen, Assou-Ekotto; Jenas (Van der Vaart, min 62), Livermore (Carroll, min 88); Lennon, Sigurdsson (Kane, min. 81), Bale (Towsend, min. 78); Defoe.
