Valencia vs Athletic Bilbao

by:valenciafc.es

Sunday Valencia CF played at home against Athletic Bilbao to a 1-1 draw which included an excellent goal from Roberto Soldado and a surprise appearance from out of favor center Ricardo Costa. Valencia opened the first half and ended the match strong, but complacency in between saw them concede a goal and receive some intense pressure from the Basque. Valencia continues to have a confidence and/or motivation problem making it clear that Unai Emery needs to make some serious changes to get this squad clicking again.

Valencia started the match really brightly, almost scoring a goal in the first 30 seconds.  After 2 solid attempts from the corner, Valencia switched off and Biblao came on strong, pressuring Valencia, who insisted on playing the ball out defense. The pressure appeared to have paid off when Susaeta seemed to have scored a legitimate goal after an impressive double save from Guaita. However, the linesman called, incorrectly, that Susaeta was offside and discounted the goal. Valencia breathed a sigh of relief but didn’t learn from their mistake an attempt to get back in the match, Soldado went down comically in the area on 25 minutes, earning himself a yellow card. Ten minutes later, Canales, who had been one of Valencia’s better players up until that point, had to be subbed out injured. Pablo Piatti came in for him on in the 35^th minute.

Bilbao had another glorious opportunity to get up a goal when Llorente’s good header evaded Guaita and hit the post.  Valencia’s saving grace came just at halftime when a mistake from Iraizoz allowed Jonas to fire in an excellent shot at an open goal, but Iraizoz managed to sprint his way back and save the shot miraculously, keeping the score level.

Valencia came out much stronger at the beginning of the second half and threatened early. An excellent cross from Jeremy Mathieu found Jonas unmarked in front of the goal, but the Brazilian contrived to sky the ball when it was harder to miss. Valencia continued to press strong, and Soldado got a legitimate call for a penalty early on. Amorebieta appeared to have kicked out the strikers legs inside the box, but the referee swallowed his whistle.

The lack of scoring proficiency despite superiority of possession forced Emery to make a change, taking out Feghouli for Hernandez in the 69^th minute. Pablo almost handed Valencia their death sentence when, minutes after coming in, Pablo botched a pass and left the ball right on the feet of Iker Muniain.  He would use his superior dribbling skills to run past both Pablo and Ricardo Costa and shoot a magnificent effort from outside the area beating Guaita for the 1-0.

Emery would respond by subbing out the ineffective Jonas for Aduriz. The Basque striker almost immediately made his mark on the match having an excellent effort on goal, forcing a good save from Iraizoz. Valencia finally got the equalizer, though they left it late. Banega slipped Soldado a lovely through ball. and with a lovely touch he took the ball past Iraizoz and drove home the equalizer on 89 minutes.

The game ended 1-1 and Emery will be pleased with the second half performance, but will be disappointed with the team’s performance overall. The team’s problems come down to motivation and fitness. This deficiency has set Valencia in 5^th place, 5 points off the leading Levante, four points off 2^nd placed Real Madrid, and three points off third placed Barcelona. The league is still very much up for grabs, but Valencia hasn’t won since October 1^st and will need succeed in order to make the title theirs. The race is still on and not all is lost, let’s hope Valencia can turn their performance around and start bagging the points once again. Amunt!

Lineups

Valencia CF: Vicente Guaita; Miguel, Ricardo Costa, Víctor Ruiz, Jeremy Mathieu; Mehmet Topal, Éver Banega, Sergio Canales (Pablot Piatti, 37th min), Sofiane Féghouli (Pablo Hernández 69th min); Jonas (Aritz Aduriz  75^th min), Roberto Soldado

Athletic Bilbao: Iraizoz; Iraola (Gurpegui, min 45), Ekiza (Ander Herrera, min 52), Amorebieta, Aurtenetxe; Javi Martinez, Iturraspe, De Marcos; Susaeta, Llorente (Toquero, min 45) , Iker Muniain

Goals: 0-1 Min 72 Muniain; 1-1 Min 89 Soldado

By: David Wall 
Edited: Matt Tobin