Valencia Surprises Barcelona

Valencia 2-2 Barcelona

The next match was the most exciting match in all of La Liga so far this season: Valencia vs. Barcelona. It was truly a great match for everyone involved and reminds us why we love the beautiful game. It was a swelteringly hot day in Valencia that night, and in the end it may just have cost VCF all three points at the Mestalla.

 Valencia were at their best, going straight at Barça, putting the defending champs on the ropes right away. Barça had the first shot of the game, but Pedro’s shot was weak and Guaita had no problems scooping it up. Valencia would come straight back at the Catalans, though, after Mathieu bombed down the left flank, putting a fantastic cross into the box. The ball was so dangerous, in fact, that Eric Abidal could do nothing but deflect the ball past his own keeper, scoring an own goal, giving Valencia the lead. Valencia would pressure Barça the whole first half, and the Catalans didn’t look like they could cope. Valencia looked to beat Barça at their own game, holding possession and passing circles around the defending champs.

Barça hit right back, though, as Messi slipped Pedro a clever through ball and the Canary Islander slotted the ball past Guaita at the near post. Barça would begin mounting a comeback, and soon after the goal Messi was brought down by Adil Rami inside the box. Rami already had a yellow card, and the foul should have earned him his second and a penalty for the Catalans, but the referee swallowed his whistle, and Los Che breathed easy.  Messi would have one more potshot at Guaita, but the Valencia keeper had no problem smothering the shot. 

The minor setback put fire in Los Che, and they came right back at Barcelona with a vengeance. Éver Banega, who was bossing the Valencia midfield, did some brilliant work to put Jeremy Mathieu through towards the Barcelona goal, and the Frenchman had no problem embarrassing Javier Mascherano with his speed. Again Mathieu unleashed a beautiful cross that evaded Puyol, Soldado, Valdes, and Abidal. The ball did find Pablo Hernandez, however, who slotted the ball calmly past the stranded Valdes. Valencia had the lead once again courtesy of PH, and didn’t look ready to give it up. The Catalans weren’t taking kindly to being outdone by what was supposed to be a depleted squad; and because they couldn’t do it sportingly, tempers flared. A blocked cross from Soldado led to the striker confronting Puyol. It appeared as though the Barça captain used his arm to block the cross, but there was no call. The two got into it and had to be separated by their teammates. The altercation earned Soldado a yellow card, but Puyol got off easy with just a talking to.

Moments later Soldado had a glorious chance to stick it to his marker after breaking free on a beautiful counter attack started by none other than Ever Banega and Jeremy Mathieu. Once again Banega found Mathieu on the left flank.  Mathieu had his way with Mascherano yet again, and slid yet another cross into the area. The ball found Soldado unmarked, just feet from an open goal, but the striker missed the golden opportunity and put his shot wide. 

Valencia would continue to control the first half and held their 2-1 lead at the half.

Valencia would start the second half brightly with counter attack after counter attack. The first started with Jordi Alba, who slotted Sergio Canales through with a brilliant long range pass. Canales put the square ball to Soldado who couldn’t quite control it. Instead, Soldado popped the ball up for Éver Banega, who came and slammed a left footed effort at goal. His shot was poor, however, and he ended up sending the ball into orbit. The next attack came from Pablo Hernandez. After some fancy footwork, PH put in a nice little cross for Canales, who whiffed his shot. The ball did eventually fall to Soldado, but his shot was blocked out for a corner.

Barça responded to the early flurries from Valencia by putting in an old icon of theirs, David Villa. 

Villa received a warm welcome from the Valencia fans, who showed their class by greeting him with a healthy applause and banners lauding his efforts as a Valencia player and captain. 

El Guaje almost had an immediate impact, but his shot was well saved by Guaita.

Barça’s next attack saw them hit the cross bar after an attempt to play the ball out of the box ended poorly for Valencia. Barça would start to find more space as Valencia tired in the sweltering heat of the day, but good defending from Victor Ruiz and Adil Rami kept them at bay. Their best effort saw Messi one on one with Guaita, but some last ditch defending from Rami help Guaita scoop the ball away from the Argentinean captain. Soon after though, the Catalans would find an equalizer after Messi did brilliantly to chip the defense, leaving new comer Cesc Fabergas open for the one on one with Guaita, which he easily converted. As the half wore on Valencia tired, and Barça began showing their championship colors. 

Villa had the opportunity to steal all three points from the Mestalla on 80 minutes, but Guaita pulled out a brilliant stop to keep Villa’s scoring record against his old club at 0.

The match would still end on something of a sour note for Valencia as Jordi Alba was sent off with a straight red in added time. There wasn’t really any apparent reason for the sending off, but the official record shows it to be that Alba said something inappropriate. The match would end 2-2, but Valencia will come away from the match feeling good that they proved the defending champs to be human after all.

Man of the Match: Ever Banega- He ran the Valencia offence, helped out in defense, and most importantly, made Barcelona look bad. Very few players can take Barça out of their rhythm the way Banega did, and if he keeps playing like that Valencia can put in a realistic challenge for the title this season.

Lineups:

Valencia CF: Vicente Guaita; Miguel Brito, Adil Rami, Víctor Ruiz, Jordi Alba; David Albelda (Tino Costa, 46th minute), Éver Banega; Pablo Hernández, Sergio Canales (Jonas Gonçalves, 69th minute), Jérémy Mathieu (Pablo Piatti, 73rd minute); Roberto Soldado.

FC Barcelona: Víctor Valdés; Dani Alves, Javier Mascherano, Carles Puyol (Thiago Alcántara, 63rd minute), Eric Abidal; Sergio Busquets, Xavi Hernández, Seydou Keita (Adriano Correia, 57th minute); Cesc Fàbregas, Lionel Messi, Pedro Rodríguez (David Villa, 57th minute).

Goals: 1-0 Eric Abidal (own goal, 12th minute), 1-1 Pedro Rodríguez (14th minute), 2-1 Pablo Hernández (23rd minute), 2-2 Cesc Fàbregas (77th minute).

Player Ratings

GK-Vicente Guaita: 7.8- Another great showing from Guaita.  Nothing he could have done about the two goals scored on him and he made some brilliant saves to boot.

DL- Jordi Alba: 6.5- Not Jordi’s best game of the season, but he did well defensively and supported Mathieu well. Unlucky to get a red card, I personally still don’t understand what for.

DC- Adil Rami: 7.0- Good match from the Frenchman, though he can count himself lucky for not getting sent off and giving away a penalty early on in the match.

DC- Victor Ruiz: 7.0- The youngster keeps getting better and better, though he did have some lapses in concentration, he made some brilliant plays as well.

DR- Miguel Brito: 6.8- Good work from the Portuguese international, might have given away a penalty towards the end of the match, but the ref was in a forgiving mood this match.

CM- David Albelda: 7.0- Brilliant work from the skipper, he continues to be Valencia’s hard man in midfield, despite being 33 years old.  He did get injured though, which is worrying.

CM- Ever Banega: 9.6- Best game of the season from the Argentine international.  He was amazing in midfield, passing and dribbling circles around the Barça players.  Just about every play went through him.

CM- Tino Costa: 6.5- Decent match from Tino, gave a bit more attacking flair to the team, but didn’t really produce anything substantial.

RW- Pablo Hernandez: 9.0- Pablo’s best game of the season as well.  He dribbled and passed like the PH we all knew and loved from seasons ago.  If he keeps this up we might just forget about Joaquin soon.

LW- Jeremy Mathieu: 9.2- Yet another player to set a personal best.  He was bombing down the left flank, assisted both goals, and generally wrought havoc amongst the Barça defender who just could not cope with his pace and strength on the ball.

LW-Pablo Piatti: 6.9- Good game from Piatti, thought he should’ve come in a bit earlier; his pace and skill really put Barça on the back foot when he saw the ball.  Problem was he just didn’t see enough of it.

CAM- Sergio Canales: 6.6- Good match from Canales.  Like I said, this kid can really be something for the future if he keeps this up, a little more maturity and he really would’ve hurt Barça.

CAM- Jonas Gonçalves: 6.0- Got into some really good positions, but he needs to start hitting his shots.  He made some criminal misses that would’ve given Valencia the lead.  Good contribution, but not good enough.

ST- Soldado: 6.9- Good effort from the Vice Captain.  He did miss that open goal though, which cannot be overlooked.

By: David Wall