Wednesday,
Valencia CF squared off against dark horses BATE Borisov in a Champions League
Group F goal fest. Valencia would be coming into the match having defeated BATE
in Belarus by a 3-0 score line, and looking to take control of the group as a
victory against BATE would break the three way deadlock for first and second
place. BATE; on the other hand, would be looking to avenge their first defeat
in the Champions League by turning the tables on Valencia in front of their
home fans. BATE had been impressing everyone with their quick counter attacking
style, racking up victories against Lille and the mighty Bayern Munich in their
first two Group F match days. However, BATE’s poor form against Spanish
opposition would continue, as on that rainy night Valencia pulled out a 4-2 win
in the Mestalla against the plucky Belarusians.
The game
started positively for Valencia as they controlled possession and attacked with
flair from the opening whistle. Valencia’s first good chance of the game would
be within the first ten minutes as forward Jonas would be wrongly called for an
offside position which, had he not been flagged, would have seen him through on
goal. The match was heated from the get go, as Valencia captain Soldado would
be caught by the cameras several times for punching several BATE players.
Luckily for him, the officials missed the blatant acts of violence and Soldado
would avoid seeing a straight red only moments into the match. In the 13th
minute Soldado would get back to playing soccer instead of boxing and tried a
spectacular overhead kick, but the shot had no mustard on it and was easy for
the BATE keeper to handle. In the 21st minute Soldado had a decent
penalty shout ignored as he was brought down in the penalty box after some
fancy footwork. Replays would show that there was indeed contact and a penalty
should have been called. Moments later, in the 25th minute, BATE
received their first yellow card for a bad tackle in midfield. Valencia wasted
no time in getting the ball moving again, and a brilliant pass from Tino Costa
found Jonas in the box. The Brazilian striker still had it all to do, however,
and with a brilliant touch and a bit of luck, Jonas fought his way past two
BATE defenders and opened the scoring on 26 minutes. Not seconds later,
Valencia recover the ball after sloppy play from BATE on the restart, and this
time it was Jonas passing on the break for Guardado. The flashy Mexican worked
his way to the top of the box before being fouled, forcing the referee to call
a penalty. Replays would show that Guardado was just outside the box when he
was brought down, but perhaps this was a bit of delayed justice for the
non-call earlier in the match. The captain, Soldado, stepped up to take the
penalty and converted with ease to give Valencia the 2-0 advantage on 29
minutes. From then on the game would be all Valencia, as the Spanish side would
begin to pass and shoot BATE to pieces, winning corners and possession all over
the pitch. BATE did manage to carve out one good chance in the 39th
minute as striker Bresan found himself in a good position to score, but his
shot fizzled wide for a goal kick. Regular service was resumed and in the 43rd
minute Valencia winger Sofiane Feghouli tried to chip the BATE keeper after
some lovely play to get in the box. His chipped shot went just wide, however,
and the score line remained 2-0. The first half would close with a final flurry
from BATE, but nothing would come of it as the sides went into the break at
2-0.
The
second half would start much in the same way as the first, with Valencia
dominating proceedings and creating good chances. In the 51st
minute, Gago would rob the ball in midfield and slot a lovely pass for Feghouli
who would slam home a powerful finish, giving Valencia the 3-0 advantage. At
this point, however, Valencia appeared to have switched off. Having become
complacent in the 3-0 score line, Valencia began allowing BATE more time on the
ball, and some sloppy defending allowed BATE a free kick in the 53rd minute. BATE’s first goal came from that free
kick as Bresan’s wonderfully struck ball found its way through the sea of
players in the box and between Valencia goalkeeper, Vicente Guaita’s, legs,
giving BATE their first goal of the game, and their first ever goal against
Spanish opposition. Despite having scored the goal the BATE players still found
it difficult to maintain possession against the Spanish side, often resorting
to rough play in order to recover the ball, earning two BATE players yellow
cards on the 56th and 58th minute; a tactic that seemed
to be working, however, and BATE soon found themselves on the offensive more
and more. Their free kick on 61 minutes was well struck, but equally well saved
by Guaita. BATE received another yellow card, this time rather stupidly, for
interfering with a goal kick. The BATE manager will not have been pleased with
all the cards his team were accumulating as there were still two more group
stage games after this one, and the influx of yellow cards could mean
suspensions in the near future. The Valencia manager, on the other hand, will
have seen the game slowly start to slip away from him, forcing his first change
of the match in the 67th minute, subbing out forward Jonas for
midfielder Ever Banega. The change was obviously meant to give Valencia more
control in midfield as well as more creativity going forward. In the 69th
minute the officials miss an obvious handball by a BATE forward as he robs
defender Adil Rami of the ball, leaving him through on the Valencia goal.
Guaita was up to the challenge, however, and ran out to meet the streaking BATE
forward, tipping his shot wide of his goal for a corner. On the 79th
minute, Valencia manager Mauricio Pellegrino will have thought the game in
hand, and subbed out top goal scorer and captain, Roberto Soldado, for striker
Nelson Valdez, in a bid to keep Soldado fresh for future matches. The game was
far from over, however, as midfielder Fernando Gago carelessly gave the ball
away at the top of the Valencia box, allowing three BATE players to bear down
on Guaita’s goal. This time there was nothing the Valencia keeper could do to
stop BATE as some neat passing play left the goal wide open for a simple tap
in. The score line now read 3-2, galvanizing BATE with hopes of a draw or
better. Valdez, too, had been fired up, determined not to give up a three goal
advantage, and his first touch of the ball in the match nearly resulted in a
goal as his powerful shot wizzed past the BATE far post on the 84th
minute. Valencia would not relent, and in the 86th minute Banega
found Feghouli with a brilliant pass which the Algerian international settled
brilliantly with his first touch and slammed home for a 4-2 advantage. The
final change in the match came at the 88th minute as Mexican winger
Andres Guardado was brought off for veteran midfielder David Albelda, given the
task of holding the ball in midfield and seeing out the final moments of the
game. The match ended 4-2 for Valencia, bringing them on level terms with
Bayern Munich, both with 9 points. BATE follows with 6, and Lille find
themselves at the bottom of Group F with no points having lost all their
Champions League matches this season.
If
Valencia can continue to perform like this, pressing hard, winning possession,
and passing smart, then they have a good chance of advancing from this group
and possibly winning it. The next match day may well decide who goes through,
as Valencia play Bayern Munich at home in the Mestalla, while BATE go to Lille
to reestablish themselves as the surprise team in this year’s Champions League.
A win for Valencia and a loss for Bate will see Valencia qualify mathematically
for the next round, so fingers crossed and let’s hope Valencia can continue
picking themselves up from a slow start to the season with more good
performances like this one.
PLAYER RATINGS
Vicente Guaita: 7.0- Confidant performance from the
Valencia keeper. He made some spectacular saves, but fell asleep on for the
first goal. He also hurt his hand; let’s hope it’s not serious.
Aly Cissokho: 6.4- Invisible for most of the match,
especially on defense. Really expecting more of him, hopefully he’s still
adjusting and will only get better.
Ricardo Costa: 7.0- Strong display in defense; didn’t
make any mistakes and is making his case for first choice alongside Rami.
Adil Rami: 7.1- Strong as always and was solid
going forward. Was denied a wonderful pass to Jonas, wrongly called offside.
Joao Pereira: 7.4- Truly excellent this game. I haven’t
been too impressed by the Portuguese international recently, but this game he
really stepped up. Full of energy, all over the pitch, and produced on offense
as well as defending strongly.
Fernando Gago: 6.2- Excellent first 60 minutes, but
after the third goal he switched off completely. The whole team can be judged
for complacency, but Gago was the worst offender. His lack of concentration led
to BATE’s second goal and he never recovered from that mistake.
Tino Costa: 7.0- Excellent throughout the match, and
though he was invisible at times, his lovely assist for the match opener
deserves praise. His shooting and free kicks were uncharacteristically bad,
however.
Sofiane Feghouli: 8.8- Just incredible from the Algerian
international. He was clearly man of the match with his silky dribbling skills,
smart running, and excellent finishing. Hopefully his contract saga ends soon,
because we have a real talent in this kid.
Andres Guardado: 7.5- Another transfer that I hadn’t been
too impressed with, he finally showed me how he earned his reputation. He was a
work horse for Valencia last night, working hard up and down the left flank and
earning a penalty to boot.
Jonas Gonรงalves: 7.5- Good
work from the Brazilian international, scoring the opener and creating
headaches for the BATE defense.
Roberto Soldado: 7.0- Scored the penalty and made plenty
of good runs. Should have earned a penalty himself, but sometimes the refs just
don’t go your way. It did balance out for him, however, because he should have
been red carded twice for violent conduct after punching two BATE players.
Subs
Ever Banega: 7.2- Vintage Banega. Passing brilliantly,
controlling possession, dribbling and moving well; I think we are finally
seeing the great talent that we missed almost two years ago. It also doesn’t
seem to hurt him that he is playing with two midfield compatriots, and I think we
have may be looking at Argentina’s starting midfield this game.
Nelson Valdez: 6.9- He keeps surprising me. Originally I
thought he would be the flop of all our transfers, he has been impressing
lately. Came very close to scoring only moments after entering the game and
worked hard as usual.
David Albelda: 6.5- Didn’t really have a lot of time to
affect the game, but made some strong tackles in midfield.
written by David Wall
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