Raúl García is from Aduriz

Raúl García gutted Valencia and added Athletic to Europe. Two blows from Navarre, one on each side, evaporated the Voro effect and deepened the black and white crisis, a team that only has its past. Neither is it present nor future. Oh if there had been an audience at Mestalla! Athletic, who in order to have his people on his side in the final in Seville, plays a card to his options of being in Europe, surpassed Real Sociedad in the classification, which has one less game but also other sensations, and leaves back to Valencia, who started the course with the Champions in mind and today is tenth.

Raúl García has taken over from Aduriz. The Navarrese has been flirting for years with being a striker, although he had never had the instinct he has now. He left confinement after having scored in three consecutive days and on the return he has signed four more goals. He has 13 in the League. His best figure at age 33. Aduriz made more goals than ever at 34. Raúl García not only decided the game but also defined it. Valencia lacked its punch and even more so its intensity. The black and white have been left as the stands, empty. Their faces convey despair and grief. Wandering through the field of Parejo is his reflection.

Voro is a simple guy and so is his soccer manual. No hieroglyphs or watermarks facing the gallery. Long and running balls. His players understood it from the start and in four minutes they had finished twice as many times as in Celades' last two games. One Rodrigo and another Guedes. But Voro does not have a magic wand and, the first time his own tried to get the ball under control, Kondogbia gave the ball to Munian and Raúl García, after Williams' assistance, did not forgive.

There Athletic already had the game under control, with Dani García and Unai López being the masters of their plot. Garitano's were superior from start to finish. Well planted at the back and incisors above. There was no way for Parejo to get into the game, neither did Guedes or Rodrigo, while Ferran seems to be still confined. The only clear opportunity that Valencia generated to really get into the game was Maxi Gómez's head. The Uruguayan shot to nothing when he had everything to be a goal. And we are still talking about the first half. In the second there was even less game. Because of Valencia, of course. Lor better, obviously, Raúl García's goal. His claw from the front would have been applauded by Mestalla. Oh if there had been an audience!