Champions League, Matches - Written by BlueChampion on Sunday, April 1, 2007 20:36 | 1,766 Views | 19 Comments | Add Comment
Valencia CF - Some facts & thoughts
When the club names were drawn for pairing the teams for the round of 8, Valencia was one of the teams no fans or managers would have liked their team to meet. When it was read out that Chelsea would meet Valencia, not only there was a sigh of relief for other English club fans of having avoided Valencia but also they were happy that Chelsea got Valencia. Well, we weren’t quite worried when we drew Barcelona in the grou league, were we? When you think that anything less than being champions is worth a finish, then you should be ready to play anyone at any stage. For a moment, let’s spare a thought about how worried they should be, having drawn Chelsea, of all teams!
We all know that Valencia has some very impressive players in their squad. They do have the kind of players who, with momentary brilliance can turn the match around. Let’s pick up those key players and see what we can expect:
Fernando Morientes will not playing against Chelsea in this round of Champion League. He dislocated his right shoulder and he would be out for 4 full weeks. This should bring a sigh of relief for Jose as Fernando has been in top form for Valencia this season. David Villa might get a lot of media attention and club attractions, but the fact is that Morientes has been more effective than Villa, in front of the goal. Not only Morientes has scored more goals than Villa this season but also has scored all his goals in less that half of the shots Villa has managed to do. Morientes with his supreme accuracy, poses a bigger goal threat than Villa.
Where Villa scores over Morientes is his completeness in front of the goal. In addition to his 15 goals in this season so far, Villa has also managed 10 assists. Villa is very pacy and skilled and he is both-footed too. He is going to be a menace for sure but I feel Chelsea defenders can cope with him. In the absence of Morientes, Villa would be supported by 29-year old Angulo unless they opt for a defensive version of 4-2-3-1 with only Villa upfront.
Canizares, who was replaced by Iker Casillas as the first choice goalkeeper for Spain, has been in some kind of average form, with his age impacting his agility and reaction. Now he’s not even the second choice in Spain as Jose Reina would take over if Casillas could not make it. Now, there’s a huge gulf in quality and experience between Canizares and Valencia’s second and third choice keepers. If Canizares becomes unavailable for some reason, Chelsea will surely test Mora/Butelle and this would swing the game in Chelsea’s favour by a great degree.
Miguel, Del Horno, Ayala and Marchena form the defensive line-up, which is as strong as you would like. But Marchena has been suspended alongwith Navarro and they wont be available for these matches. In fact, Navarra has been suspended (banned?) for 6 months. Though they have an established and settled back four, they surely struggle against class teams and with our kind of attack, they can be surely broken down. While we know that Del Horno is not as fast as he would like himself to be and also that he has problems dealing with pace, Joe Cole and SWP (unfortunately Robben won’t be there) should run riot.
They also have a strong and skilled midfield in Baraja, Vicente, Joaquin and the Valencia team is never complete without their legendary captain David Albelda. He has been a rock solid defensive midfielder, someone like Maka, always shielding his back four. Joaquin, the Chelsea target for two seasons now, would do his best to impress Jose as much as he can. I hope he doesnt overdo this and turn very dangerous for us.
Valencia have been playing 4-4-2 all season and against easier opponents they adopt 4-2-3-1. With their very highly talented squad, they can surely cause havoc against any team. Not only their team is skilled but also they are a very balanced side with sufficient and able back ups for every role. For all that they have, they are not in their best form of the season, especially when they have to face Chelsea in a week. They just lost 0-2 to Racing Santander (8th in La Liga) at home on 17-mar. And this weekend, playing their best XI, they beat Espanyol by 3-2. In a way, you can equate this to our stoppage time win over Watford. Their away form this season has been quite ordinary - in 14 away games in La Liga, they have won 4, drawn 4 and lost 6 and naturally they have conceded more than they could score in away matches!
This graphic tells you about the pattern of their scoring in La Liga. I’ve been chosing La Liga to analyse their performance only because you have a bigger population and sample for the analysis. Otherwise, La Liga and European football can be two entirely different ball games. Anyway, back to this graphic. This shows Valencia’s habit of conceding goals in the second half so much so that they have conceded in the second half more than twice of what they have conceded in the first half.
Now compare this to our kind of game where most of our goals are scored in the second half. May be, because of Jose’s half time talk or players taking time to find their rhythm or whatever, we score heavily in the second half. Now, you might have come to a very good conclusion, haven’t you?
Valencia are the third most successful club in Spanish Football, after Real Madrid and Barcelona. They have won the La Liga six times and have never won the Champions League despite ending up runner-up in successive seasons. The of Rafa Benitez was witnessed as Valencia won two league titles in three seasons. After Rafa left them for Liverpool, they have not been able win anything big. After two trophy-less seasons, they are now strong contenders for both La Liga and Champions League. Like Lyon in the last season’s champions league, they are the dark horse of this competition this season.
I have more to say, but I gotta go! Ok then, whoever they have, whatever they can do, whatever kind of form they are in - we’re gonna beat them fair and square!
19 Comments
1. joeblue
2. gol
man . . no way we are going to beat valencia. they are a very strong team in europe. if we wait for a lucky header in the 92nd minute to beat watford, forget about europe. villa is going to rip us apart. i’m even scared to watch this match.
3. trueblue
hey gol! i dont know what kind of fan you are? if you think we’re going to lose to valencia, i’m sorry. if you dont back/support your team against a team that is inferior to us, you’re not a fan at all. get lost.
4. gol
heard about freedom of speech? anyone who has been followig the form and watching the games of chelsea and valencia will know that they are far superior to us in skill and technique.
we’ve screwed up the whole season. the excuses of injuries etc are all fake. we’ve been poor and there were some poor decision making by roman and jose and we are paying the penalty. now dont call the carling cup a silverware. it’s like liverpool being proud about winning the community shield. it’s near to nothing. if we dont win this champions league this season, we should dispose off the overpaid superstars like shevchenko, ballack, lampard, cole, swp etc and may be jose mourinho too.
5. shah
gol might have a point but valencia are not flying high currently in la liga. they are no.4 and they are struggling in a lot of matches.
6. abdullah
No matter what happens we just need to leave this match with a positive result. No doubt that valencia have nothing to lose and will cause us great trouble, but like i said, when chelsea is in full power we have the best backline and goalkeeper in the world. Key players for chelsea i think will be cech to keep a hopefull clean sheet, lampard the magnificent midfielder, and drogba the great goalscorer (whom we all have been waiting patiently for his 30th goal of the seaon, not a better time to score than against valencia). Ballack and Sheva should also benefit us with their champions league experience. I am greatly fearing valencia as judging by what they did to intermilan and roma previuosly, they are considered a great threat. However that doesnt prevent us from the right to dominate the game and push valencia to the limit. Since we will most likely be lacking speedy players ( robben injured, joe cole not fit, SWP and kalou most likely as subs) i see it as being hard for us to keep much pressure on valencia. Mourinho should be able to cope with anything as i have absolutely no doubt of his managing capabilities. Lets hope this will be a match to remeber and lets seal this tie from the first leg. Good luck chelsea Blue4Lyfe
7. bingo
very true. lack of wingers is going to hurt us while valencia are superfast in their counterattack. may be jose should play kalou for all 90 minutes. i’m eager to see your team selection BC. what’s your XI?
8. joeblue
True Gol that Valencia r a very strong outfit but remember we r playing at home where we r invincible under JM and Valencia know that , they wld not hav their mid-field engine Baraja and Nando upfront also without the suspended duo of Navarro and Marchena they lack quality subs , and there might be a chance of Ayala not playing as io saw him being stretchered off this weekend agnst Espanyol!!!!
Valencia hav a habit of conceding goals even if they score 3 , we must avoid one-on-one situations cuz their wingers know skills our full-backs cant even counter, i doubt we can bring our fullbacks into the game cuz of the constant threat from J.Sanchez and V.Rodriguez!!!
i expect them to play more of a 4-5-1 with the wingers coming in to support Villa whenever possible , another good thing in our favor is the lack of quality strikers on the bench , they hav only F.Tavano who is decent to say the best ,their mid-field lacks big match players except for Albelda , Vianna has spent most of the time on the bench and Edu hasant been upto his best this is what i expect them to play……………
Canizares
Miguel R.Albiol Ayala/Moretti Del Horno
Joaquin Silva Albelda Angulo Vicente
Villa
No quality on the bench , and without Nando the r not good at set-pieces at both ends of the park , just hope that they dont score any away goals , cuz if they do it will be a big ask to definately score at the Mestalla!!!!
9. RomanHoliday
I say play long-ball to Drogs and have Sheva dribble and get us free-kicks and penalties. Also Lamps can fire from long range.If Essien can play ,we got the power to take valencia down even in the first half.
Remember they have a part of their back line suspended and can’t really use muscle against us cos the ref will be looking at them sternly cos of their last infractions and JM will surely take advantage of that.
If not there’s always the second round. I got a feeling that we’re gonna get to the finals and take the cup but it won’t be the easy way.But as long as we do , I’m happy.
10. RomanHoliday
And remember with Diarra, Carvalho JT , Ashley Cole and Makain front , we got a back line much better than any they usually face in Spain, or any they’ve played against for some time.
also we have haven’t been beaten at home for so long , I don’t remember the last time .Put that together with crowd support , the game is ours,period.
11. Adonis
I hope Jose plays a four three three with Sheva and Kalou supporting Drogba, Lampard, Ballack, Cole, and A Cole, Terry, Carvalho, Diarra.
Maybe he should start out a bit more concervatively, but I hope we’ll play with that formation for a bit of time, I’d like to see it.
12. Adonis
By the way, RomanHoliday, Villa is a great free kick taker. They will be a threat off of free kicks.
13. BLUE + SHEVA FAN AHMED
i think this will be a really tough game ! i agree with abdullah i want to see murinho and his great skill of coaching i would like 2 see him take advantages over their suspended defender and the ref watching them closely i think it shoulg be cech — JT-Carvalho-A.Cloe-Diarra — makelele-essien-lamps-SWP — sheva-and drogba but ofcourse i dnt know y ballack the great player but a shitty one in a blue shirt has to play every game so they will let him play instead of SWP and i think SWP is much better ! i fear villa and their strong midfield ! Gd luck chelsea BLUE4LYFE !!
14. abdullah
This can be named the most crucial game so far in our season it is an absolute must win along with a cleansheet. This is the probablr start up Cech, terry, carvalho, diarra, ashley cole, ballack, lampard, makalelle, mikel, drogba, and sheva. To turn into a more attacking form kalou or SWP might be introduced as suns for maka. It is going 2 be a very difficult game but im really looking 4ward 2 it. GO CHELSEA WE KNOW U CAN WIN IT!!!! blue4lyfe
15. RomanHoliday
YUp that’s right, Adonis
Villa might be a great free kick taker but we have the best goalie in the world Peter Cech.
I’m staying up all night tomorrow and cheering the team on.
. I say 2-0 . Cheers.
16. abdullah
liverpool just finished demolishing the crappy performing psv (3-0) as milan drawed 2-2 with bayern. It semms that liverpool is already considered in the semi’s so we already know who we are going to face. im really looking 4ward to chelsea’s gameand hope that we win. haven’t heard much from u BC (other than ur article), what have u got 2 say about this match? probabale line up maybe? go chelsea blue4lyfe
17. Drakkon
Good luck to all Chelsea fans,you will need it.
18. dadad
you are suck
19. chinzilla
i tink we were luky 2 beat valencia in the quarter finals and the match at the mestalla this season the match at stamford bridge in the first half silva and co were fantastic i thought we were going out a mistake from canziarez let us go through the 2nd meeting in the group stage will be a harder match than barcelonas few years ago they r in great form in the la liga. many might not think this but ive been watching valencia since 1995 i tink they r the best in the world ive also once seen valencia take on real madrid at the mestalla and i was in the valencia section the atmosphere was one of the best ive ever seen i think the mestalla and fans are the most intimidating in europe i also think former manager jm will become the next manager of valencia because i think quique sanchez flores is not loved by the players valencia chairman juan soler will soon find out nd sack qsf jm will get MUCH MUCH!!! better backing from the board than any other european team he will also get alot of money 2 spend and in few years time if jm takes over valencia mite be regarded as 1 of the greates ever defensive teams in the world chelseas start 2 the season would have been better if they bot villa and joaquin nd get there assistant aswell fransisco escriba
All right BC waty to go , a thumbs up for the post!!!!
I hav been an avid fan of Valencia in la liga and hav been watching them for quite a few seasons and they r a very good team no doubt!!!!
The weakness for CFC will be their counter-attacks , they hav some of the fastest players in europe in Joaquin , Vicente , Silva , Angulo, and Villa , they r precise and effective whereas we hav a very slow mid-field and no quick forwards!!!
Another day and with a full fit squad we wld hav won comfortably , but now we lack wingers , Cole is not match-fit, Robben has again left us when we needed him the most and SWP is not in the same class as Joaquin and co.!!!!This leaves us with the slowpoke Ballack and Lamps in the middle , the pressure will be on us cuz we need to win at our home whereas Valencia will play the waiting game as they r playing away and r very quick on the counter , when we score the first the game will open up , but the first goal holds the key to this tie whoever scores the first , its game , set and match for them!!!!
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