Valencia defeats the Barça team with two shots from the Uruguayan, thick and very gray in attack at Mestalla
Maxi Gmez celebrates one of his goals, with Messi standing on the grass.
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Direct.
Narration and statistics
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Opinion
The Setin disaster, by Julin Ruiz
In football there is no empirical formula. Vision, skill, strength and goal are combined in different doses as a way of leading to victory. Because enjoyment is born almost only from her. Possession percentages and pass records sweeten it, but nobody understands them if they camouflage themselves as a goal substitute.
Mestalla shouted a declaration of intentions to each team and shouted the answer from the first second. The Bara of Quique Setin Live holding the ball to bore the opponent. The eternal rondo that is born in Ter Stegen… but dies before stepping on area. Busquets, De Jong and Arthur associated, touched and held the ball up to six minutes in a row, but don't be surprised. Neither Jordi Alba and nor Sergi Roberto. Griezmann I was looking for how to come into play, Ansu Fati the spaces where they could find you and Messi turn at times very gray.
Valencia, lightly grafted from the spirit of Celades, I didn't get into that fight. He mentalized to crouch and not be trapped in the shadow, to bloom just at the right time. Many minutes it cost to touch a ball but few more to be able to step on the area. Kondogbia, marshal erected in the brain by the absence of Parejo, take advantage of the parsimony Blaugrana, Rob, partnered with Soler to open Gay, who broke into the area until Piqu stopped him on penalty. He could not have achieved Valencia more performance at his minutes of possession, however he emerged Ter Stegen to clear Maxi's shot.
Far from lying down in the misfortune of not knocking out the Barca team, Valencia insisted on the formula. With a defensive firmness very forgotten in other games, I looked for the pressure with which to short-circuit the Bara and Ter Stegen had to reappear to catch a bad clearance from Piqu to Ferran center and then the rejection of a shot of Maxi to the crossbar that caz Gameiro. Only the German fulfills the task of holding zero on his marker.
They wanted to wake up the Catalans with the first shot on goal, from a direct foul by Messi. Nothing more. The possession had not protected him and, in addition, the domain was no longer so overwhelming. Setin changed the band to Griezmann and Ansu Fati. It also did not result. Not even a corner kick appeared in the statistics and the exploited was Ter Stegen, forced to make five more stops than in any game of the first round.
The passage through the locker room changed the script. Maxi got rid of his mistakes and opened the score. The Blaugrana goal, clueless because he hit Jordi Alba, could not frustrate the Uruguayan again.
Messi's three plays
The jar of fra water had its effect on the benches: Setin looked for Arturo's bite Vidal and Celades plus control in attack with Rodrigo. Bara felt good who knows if the change or goal against. The truth is that he woke up to protect his leadership. Avanz lneas and cerc del Valencia in the area, not based on rubbing ball but sometimes. He became more vertical and entrusted himself to Messi. Three plays of the Argentine could put the tie that, now yes, began to hover around. It was going to cost Valencians more to emerge looking for the counter and Jaume had to appear to deflect a direct foul that slipped into his goalkeeper.
The blaugrana effervescence lasted little. 12 shots and only four between the three sticks, poor baggage for a thick and gray leader in Mestalla before a resilient rival. Celades' team may have gaps, almost all in defense, but it has learned to sustain itself at decisive moments like those presented to it.
It was a matter of, without losing composure, waiting for the loss, looking for it and even provoking it, because this new Bara is still flat. And arrived. Maxi caz an assistance of Ferran to extend an advantage gained by pulse in every inch of the field. Without the Parejo compass, with the tempted Rodrigo on the starting bench and with a failed penalty, but resurrecting in each small death, Valencia closed a victory that resists him for 13 years and leaves the leadership of the League in the air.
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