Piccini put it all the way

Cristiano Piccini gave Valencia three points that put him in the fight for Europe. Piccini celebrated it like it was the goal of his life, because it possibly was. The Italian, a player who has spent two years without being one due to a damn injury, put the emotional moment to a day full of emotions, a day that began with a demonstration, continued with the positives for Covid-19 of Bordalás Y Alderete and it ended with a ‘ghost goal’ from Carrillo that in Elche they clearly saw inside, but that the VAR told Jaime Latre that the ball did not enter in its entirety. With the technology used in the Champions League, less doubts, really.

Valencia dedicated Bordalás, confined since yesterday in his home in Alicante after testing positive for Covid-19, one of the best early parts of the season. Francisco’s Elche was subjected to a siege from which only Lucas escaped once and encountered Cillessen, who has been keeping silent since the game against Villarreal, making stops that give points. Valencia, perhaps because Gayà was missing or rather because Mojica was not on the left of Elche, found a vein on his right wing. Foulquier, Soler, Hélder, Guedes, Maxi … they all fell to that side to enter the Egdar Badía area from there. However, proof of the dominance che, it was on the other side, where the goal from Guedes arrived. A great goal.

Guedes He picked up the ball up front and, after a cut and without thinking about it, loaded his leg and placed it out of Badía’s reach. That goal goal not only justified what was being seen on the grass but also sat Guedes like a drink of water in the desert, because Bordalás signaled the day of the Ray by substituting him and directly sat him on the bench a week ago in Vigo. Guedes has his gaps in defense (and what a forward not!), But Nobody can deny that if this Valencia aspires to something more than wandering around an area, nobody needs it plugged in … and a lot.

The problem with Valencia, as it happens so many times, is that in those first 45 minutes He had left the Elche touched, although it was far from sunk. And the people of Elche, seeing themselves involved in the game, which they were because they were only one goal below, were growing in Mestalla. Francisco, whose arrival has given the team fresh air, the necessary to not get carried away after first parts like yesterday, put another gear to his team with the substitutions. Thus, with the entry on the scene of Pere Milla, Gumbau, Benedetto and Josan, Valencia was feeling threatened until Lucas Boyé tied him. The forward stole Foulquier’s toast in a corner and beat Cillessen without him being able to do anything.

There were 15 more minutes remaining in the addition and anything could happen in Mestalla, where Elche had not won for 35 years. And he was close to breaking that streak Pere Milla, que finished off the crossbar in a few minutes in which Valencia was like a beaten boxer. But it was then that Piccini appeared and, after a header from Diakhaby (excellent in everything this time the Frenchman), hit the ball with his soul. It had to be Piccini, a player who has gone two years without being one due to an injury and who celebrated it as the goal of his life, because possibly for him it was. That was a moment of passion, although the emotion did not end there. This lasted until the discount, when the action of Carrillo arrived, that of the goal that for Elche entered and for Valencia and the referee, no.