In style – AS.com

The audacious swerve of José Bordalás brings, at last, a Valencia-Madrid in style (follow the game live on As.com). In the absence of money, the Mestalla club has bought a method, sometimes misunderstood, which results here. As Marcelino turned out in his day. The same players and another team that, at the beginning of the day, was second in the standings and in the goals table, after signing the best start in the last seven years. From Nuno Espíritu Santo it was the previous initial streak and the team ended up in the Champions League.

Valencia is the fourth Spanish team in European participations (49), but they have missed that appointment six times this century, four with Peter Lim on the property. Last year he finished thirteenth, the worst position since the season in which he returned to First (87-88). With a decapitalized squad and a very limited club in the market, Bordalás accepted the challenge. The data say that he has brought Valencia to his field and not the other way around. He has scored three goals from set pieces and has not conceded any. With two points less in possession he scores one more goal per game. In the ranking of recoveries he has gone from seventeenth to sixth place and, to unleash the legend, It is already the team with the most fouls ago (more than 17 per game) when in the previous campaign it had fifteen teams ahead: “I do not order my players to make fouls or order them not to have the ball, but I also say that there is no single way to play football,” the coach justifies himself.

Double watch for Vinicius

That point of aggressiveness and the growth of two players, Carlos Soler and Guedes have shot the team. The Portuguese has already scored two goals, when in all last year he scored seven, and is once again the footballer for whom Valencia paid 40 million to PSG. The Valencian remains the team's top scorer and top contender for a new bat. The modest signings occupy a secondary role for the moment except in the cases of the surprising Georgian goal Mamardashvili and the Uruguayan central defender Alderete.

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That is another of the features that distinguish Bordalás: stability in alignments. He has repeated the same eleven three times and only changed in the second game due to the absence of Guillamón, expelled against Getafe in the premiere. The youth squad has mutated into a midfielder, as a couple with Wass. Today he will be forced to make another change due to the loss of Cheryshev, injured in Pamplona. Foulquier will relieve him, which will double the vigilance on Vinicius.

In Madrid the eyes are on Hazard. After thirteen injuries and overcoming the coronavirus, he had a happy summer, the Eurocup partially rehabilitated him and arrived, according to all indicators, in perfect magazine condition, but it still does not curdle. Dfter the first two games, Vinicius passed him at supersonic speed. Bale's injury reopened the door, but against Inter, the key duel of this first phase of the Champions League, he settled for warming up. Mestalla will tell you what to expect. In the best of cases, if he is in the eleven, it will be understood that Ancelotti does not see him yet for continued efforts. At worst, which begins to be out of circulation in the face of new threats: Lucas Vázquez and Rodrygo. The fact about the Belgian is shocking: he has only played two full games of the last 50 and one of them was with his national team, where Roberto Martínez looks at him with better eyes (he played the last three games of the FIFA window, two as a starter, and Made a goal).

An unpleasant stadium for Madrid

Before the San Siro duel, Ancelotti suggested the rest of Modric, but his relevance in the team makes it difficult to find the moment to remove him. In any case, Camavinga is already in the front row, who has had a great debut with a goal and an assist in two short moments. He's also starting to leave some veterans behind. Marcelo, Bale, Kroos, Ceballos and Mendy are still out.

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Madrid, in any case, must know where it is getting. Of his last seven league visits to Mestalla he has only won one. Last year he conceded a painful 4-1, after seeing how they pointed out three penalties against him (an unprecedented fact), how Varane scored an own goal and how Benzema and Valverde were injured. Then it was without an audience and today he will have 29,000 Valencia fans in front of him if the fans respond as the club expects. However, there are also red numbers on the local account: Bordalás has not beaten Madrid in the eight games in which he faced him and in the last six his Getafe did not even score. That barrier of his bad luck against the greats has yet to be demolished.