Just a week ago, the Valencia bottomed out (or so it seemed because there's always something below). After the painful defeat in Granada, the draw against Cádiz at Mestalla in a match in which the squandering of the team collided with its own limitations set off the alarms and the spotlights turned to Javi grace. There was even a ratification, which is usually a preamble to a dismissal. If it was not a limit, the situation was close to being it and to get out of the relegation well, they resorted to the unity of the group and it has worked: two wins in a row and goodbye to a long season of two months without winning in the League.
Gracia himself began, calling a meeting the next day of the entire squad, including injuries and at the door of the gym. That is, in the sight of journalists. They were 15 minutes of talk that already had a first reflection in the solid victory against Yeclano in the Copa del Rey. Winning with solvency a lower category team should not be news but for this Valencia it is. Later, the Navarrese coach insisted to the press that for him there is no “unit b or c”, that the squad is one and is united.
The icy Zorrilla stadium, a litmus test
The acid test was the icy José Zorrilla stadium in Valladolid and the result could not be better. From the first minute the team was solid and ambitious. Nobody out of tune, nobody disconnected. No gross losses, no silly penalties, no self-expulsions. The goal did not come but the team kept working and finally a quarter of an hour from the end, a whiplash from Carlos Soler opened the can. Then, fifteen minutes of clenching his teeth to score three points and at the end of the game a significant image: the heavyweights from the locker room summoned a pineapple on the same Pucelano lawn to celebrate the victory and the new image of the club.
Relive Valladolid – Valencia
A few minutes later, in the press room, Gracia's final message arrived. “The unity of the team is beyond doubt,” he said.