Valencia came back to Cartagena (3-1) in their last friendly preseason in a duel in which the locals imposed their dominance although they were surprised by a rival goal in the second half, but Javi Gracia's team responded with forcefulness.
Valencia took command of the game from the first stages of the crash. Very concentrated and with intensity in his game, Javi Gracia's team put pressure on Cartagena without leaving room for maneuver.
However, the Cartagena team made it very difficult for Valencia in defense without leaving any loophole for the local team, which although it reached the vicinity of the rival area with relative ease, failed to disturb with scoring chances.
As the game progressed, Valencia made their dominance more evident and the result of their insistence came a penalty in the visiting area due to the demolition of Marc Martínez to Manu Vallejo in minute 43, but the Uruguayan did not take advantage of it when sending the ball out.
The first half closed with a clear Valencian superiority with an outstanding defensive strength and control of the ball but without generating clear scoring chances against a well-positioned rival in the vicinity of their area.
At second half Cartagena increased its intensity game and Valencia was no longer so comfortable against an opponent who was looking for the rival goal.
Thus, the Cartagena team, more ambitious than the locals, managed to get ahead on the scoreboard at 65 minutes with an own goal by Gabriel Paulista after a poor clearance that left Jaume Domenech out of position.
However, the goal spurred the Valencians, who reacted after the poor start of the second half and, after a failure of the Cartagena goal, Korean Kang In established the tie at 70 minutes and four later Jason, after touching the ball in a defender rival, put the 2-1 on the scoreboard.
But the pressure and intensity of the Valencian reaction remained and eJavi Gracia's team consolidated the comeback with a third so much, again from Kang In and beautifully made ten minutes from the end.
– Data sheet:
3 – Valencia: Jaume, Mangala, Paulista, Diakhaby, Jason, Cheryshev, Kondogbia, Esquerdo; Manu Vallejo, Kang In and Maxi Gómez. They also played: Sobrino, Álex Centelles, Racic, Guillem Molina, Álex Blanco, Yunus, Fran Pérez and Hugo González.
1 – Cartagena: Marc Martínez, Álex Martín, Uri, Cordero, Verza, José Ángel, Carlos David, Nacho Gil, Vinicius Tanque, Markel and Kleandro. They also played: Esteve, Delmás, Andújar, Forniés, Carrasquilla, Lozano, Clavería, Cayarga and Simón Moreno.
Goals: 0-1, m.65: Gabriel Paulista, own goal. 1-1, m. 70: Kang in. 2-1, m.74: Jason. 3-1, m.80: Kang In.
Referee: Carlos Alberto Carbonell (Valencian School). He showed a yellow card to the Valencians Paulista and Uros Racic, and to the visitor Borja Giménez.
Incidents: friendly match played at the Antonio Puchades stadium in the sports city of Paterna.