Source: FOOTYMAD
Valencia at Ibrox: The Most Important Game of the Season So Far.
Hold your breath: it's a real Champions League test. When I think of Valencia a few things spring to mind - Mario Kempes, 'The Aberdeen of Spain', Craig Moore and Paella Valenciana. Valencia have a good if not sparkling history. 6 times winners of La Liga. 7 Copa Rel Reys & 1 Supercopa de Espana. 1 Cup Winners Cup, 1 UEFA Cup and 2 Super Cups added to two consecutive Champions League final appearances. Their former managers include the great Alfredo Di Stefano, Ranieri, Hector Cuper, Rafa Benitez & Ronald Koeman. They are very well supported, third behind Real Madrid & Barca (who else?) in Spain. Older Bears still talk in hushed tones of the Kempes Valencia side, but in more recent times it’s not the first time we’ve met Valencia in the Champions League proper of course. We played them in 1999/2000 during Advocaats second season. This campaign is widely regarded as the closest we came to progressing through the groups in the Advocaat & Smith years. Think Mols horrific injury, the annihilation of PSV at Ibrox, Gio’s wonderful strike in Eindhoven, Tarnat’s last minute deflected free kick for Munich, Mendieta being ‘just ok’. The list is endless. Valencia, as we all remember, were nicknamed by our illustrious fourth estate as ‘the Aberdeen of Spain’ Looking back at the team we faced in Valencia it was a ludicrous suggestion and one which has stuck in minds quite rightly. Canizares, Pellegrino, Bjorklund, Mendieta, Claudio Lopez, Gerard Lopez, Carboni, Juan Sanches, Kily Gonalez, Angloma, Albelda, Adrian Ilie, Angulo, Palop The list goes on, a team chock full of internationals and the only team in a group that included Bayern Munich & PSV Eindhoven to take maximum points against us. They of course went on to contest the final in Paris, losing 3-0 to Real Madrid. They were present again at the final in 2001 at the San Siro against Bayern Munich and they again lost, this time in a penalty shootout. Rafael Benitez was brought in after that double CL appearance and he won La Liga at the first attempt after a 31 year absence. A disappointing second season saw them finish 5th but they reclaimed the title in 2003-2004 and added the UEFA Cup for good measure. Benitez of course left for Liverpool and Valencia entered a period of underachievment compared to the 5 years previous Valencia of today are a much different prospect. Their finances have been hit hard. A year ago they were rumoured to be in debt to the tune of £500million. Work on their new stadium had stopped as they were unable to sell the Mestalla.The talk of a fire sale didn’t really come to fruition with players such as the two Davids, Villa & Silva, not being sold until this summer to Barcelona & Manchester City respectively. Their financial worries have eased slightly, they recently posted figures detailing a 150m Euro reduction in their debt, thanks in no part to the sales mentioned above along with Zigic, Marchena & Alexis. Interestingly, they appear better equipped this season and their start to the season shows this despite these high profile departures. Star players include: Juan Mata, heavily rumoured to move to Barcelona this season but as yet, still a Valencia player and their best player for me. Aritz Aduriz, 29 year old, recently capped Spanish striker signed for the ridiculously low fee of 4m Euros due to Mallorcas financial problems. Ever Banega, the wonderful little Argentinian central midfielder. This summer they have made some shrewd acquisitions. In comes Mehmet Topal, the excellent 20 year old youngster Sofiane Feghouli and Roberto Soldado, ex of Real Madrid and more recently Getafe and the afore mentioned Aduriz. They have also added the two Costa's, Ricardo and Tino from Ligue 1 (the latter costing £6m) They have two players out on loan who might be familar to these shores, Asier Del Horno & Aaron Niguez (anyone remember him?) Their coach Unai Emery is in his 3rd season as manager and has performed reasonably well under the well documented financial pressures. He was seen as the financially low risk choice and the fact he has made the club in the region of £55m in transfers this summer (£80m in £25m out) would mean this is a gamble which has indeed paid off. Valencia are sitting pretty in joint 2nd having succumbed to their first defeat of the season (and only the second game out of the first 8 where they didn't pick up maximum points) on Saturday night, going down 2-1 to Barcelona. It could have been worse from Pot Two (for a variety of reasons) which included teams such as Real Madrid, AS Roma & Shakhtar but based on their excellent start to the season, this could be our biggest test of the group stages.
