The weekly round-up by Valencia Life’s resident sports editor Paul Knowles
Valencia CF
The new reality for Valencia is a threadbare squad, continually weakened by the sale of top players and a team that struggled to a 13th-placed finish last season. This has put a renewed focus on the club’s one-time saviour, the Singapore billionaire Peter Lim, a reclusive figure who prefers to stay out of the spotlight – but in Valencia, at least, can no longer avoid it.
Following last season’s high-profile departures of Ferran Torres, Rodrigo, Kondogbia, Coquelin – and most controversially of all, captain and talisman Dani Parejo to local rivals Villarreal – confidence was in short supply as La Liga 21/22 season kicked off.
The 2021/22 LaLiga Santander season began with new manager Jose Bordalas guiding his new side to a 1-0 win in his first game in charge of Valencia CF against (as fate would have it) his old side, Getafe, whom he left at the end of last season.
The mood was lifted, however, by three wins and ten points from their first four league fixtures including a 4-1 demolition of Osasuna on matchday four. This was followed by back-to-back defeats to Real Madrid and Sevilla, two disappointing draws to Athletic (Bilbao) and Cadiz – and further humiliation with a 3-1 mauling by Barcelona. After a run of nine league matches without a win, a 2-0 defeat against a listless Villarreal on matchday 12 left Valencia in 11th place in La Liga. The omens were not good…
Today’s match: Could Valencia CF snatch something from the heavyweight clash against La Liga champions Atlético?
Crack finisher Suaréz struck first with a deft finish rebounding off the post and dinking in to put Atleti into the lead. An air of despondency hung heavy around Mestalla. Was normal service being resumed?
For a moment, the Mestalla faithful dared to breathe again. In the 50th minute, an own-goal by Ateti’s defender Stefan Savic allowed them to dream again. However, Valencia knows never to take things for granted – and, sure enough, their pessimism was rewarded with two further goals by Atleti (a 58th-minute strike by Griezmann had the small but vocal away fans in rapture, and two minutes later, a fortuitous tap-in by the Croatian defender Vrsaljko had them in ecstasy).
It was not to last, however – the bats of Valencia must have left their lair to bring fortune to their team. In the 92nd minute, 21-year-old Hugo Duro pulled one back, and in the 96th minute, the same youngster levelled the score, leaving Mestalla full of hope as we pause for a two-week international break.
With the possibility of new signings in January looking unlikely, the hope is that Jose Bordelas, who led a workmanlike Getafe team to a fifth-place, La Liga finish can harness the undoubted talent of star players Soler, Guedes and Gaya and get a largely unremarkable squad to perform above the sum of their parts.
Levante UD
Over at the Estadio Ciudad de Valencia, things are also far from peachy. Levante continue to lie in 19th place – humiliatingly, the only La Liga side yet to register a win. In fact, all that keeps them from the root of the table is goal difference.
At the beginning of October, Levante named their successor to manager Paco Lopez, with Javier Pereira the man tasked with keeping them in La Liga. A big task.
Pereira is a familiar face to Levante fans, having worked as the club’s assistant manager during Juan Ignacio Martínez’s tenure between 2011 and 2013. He most recently worked in China, with Henan Jianye.
Success for Pereira would mean keeping Levante in La Liga among the country’s elite, a division where they have resided for ten of the last 11 seasons, continually punching above their weight.
His first match in charge, a point against fellow-strugglers Getafe was followed by a 5-3 trouncing by Sevilla and then an impressive 2-2 draw against champions Atlético Madrid. Consecutive defeats in their last two fixtures have done nothing to improve confidence – and it looks like a long, difficult winter ahead for the Frogs – to add to Pereira’s stress levels, they have an unwelcome visit from northern marauders Athletic Bilbao visiting them on matchday 13 following the international break.
Pereira will be clutching for the rosary beads…
