Match Report: Sunday 18/02/2007 19:00 (GMT +1): La Liga, Match Day 23


VALENCIA - FC BARCELONA 2:1 (0:0)
La Mestalla, Valencia – Attendance: 55.000

Referee: Eduardo Itturalde Gonzalez


Goals:
1:0 Angulo 52´

2:0 Silva 55´
2:1 Ronaldinho 92´


Valencia (4-4-2): Butelle - Miguel, Albiol, Ayala, Moretti - Angulo, Albelda (red card 62´), Marchena, Silva (Jorge Lopez) - Villa (Joaquin 72´), Morientes (Pallardo 65´) - Manager: Quique Sanchez Flores


FC Barcelona (4-3-3): Valdes - Oleguer, Edmilson (Giuly 71´), Puyol, Zambrotta - Marquez, Deco (red card 62´), Xavi - Iniesta, Gudjohnsen (Messi 56´), Ronaldinho - Manager: Frank Rijkaard


Match Report:

FC Barcelona slipped to a disappointing 2-1 defeat at Mestalla yesterday night and shares the lead with FC Sevilla (all 46 points), who won their home match 3-1 against Atletico Madrid. Goals from Miguel Angel Angulo (52´) and David Silva (55´) put Valencia in the lead. Barca´s Deco and Valencia´s captain David Albelda had been shown the red card in a controversial game with another 9 yellow card bookings. Ronaldinho´s 16th goal of the season (92´), another superb free-kick, came too late. Vsalencia are now only 4 points behind the leaders FC Barcelona and Sevilla.


David Villa had the first great chance for Valencia to put Los Che in front. A nice pass set Villa free but he could not take advantage of a 1-1 situation with approaching Barca keeper Victor Valdes. A superb save from the Catalan shot stopper prevented Villa to put Valencia in the lead.


Barca´s forward Eidur Gudjohnsen was the biggest thread to the Valencia goal in the first half. Unfortunately he was either found offside or could not take advantage of the opportunities. the best chance came after a good combination from Xavi and Andres Iniesta but the Icelandic international shot wide to the right of the Valencia goal.


Valencia´s midfielder and captain Albelda missed probably the biggest chance in the first half. A nice backheel trick of David Villa set Albelda free in the penalty box but shot just wide into the net outside of the right post.


Valencia started better into the second half and some poor defending of Edmilson helped Valencia to take the lead. Not sure what Edmilson was thinking (probably he was not thinking at all!) when he let David Villa taking the ball from the sideline and run into the penalty area until the goalbox without intervening. Villa just had to pass the ball into the back of the defence and angulo had not problem to convert for the 1-0.


Barca could have equalized right away when Ronaldinho failed to head home a superb Deco free kick. It was exactly a similar situation of last Sunday when Ronaldinho superbly converted Deco´s free kick against Racing. But not this time. He missed the ball and also Gudjohnsen was not able to tap the ball in. A fantastic chance that proved a costly miss when Valencia extended the lead just 1 minute later.


The Barcelona defence again failed to clear the ball several times in the penalty area after Angulo had run into the penalty box and Valencia´s Silva finally took his chance and fired the ball into the bottom left corner.


In the 65th minute, Barca´s Deco and Valencia´s captain Albelda both saw a straight red card. After a nasty tackle of Albelda, Deco´s sliding tackle clearly missed the Valencia captain, who then kicked Deco who was licking next to him on the pitch. A brawl and a lot of pushing and shoving made it very difficult to figure out why Deco finally was sent off as well.
Anyway, from this point on the referee Eduardo Itturalde Gonzalez lost control of the match. He was more busy with showing useless yellow cards (in total 9 yellow and 2 red) instead of identifying the fouls made.


Ronaldinho´s consolation goal with a superb free-kick in the 92th minute came just too late to turn things around.


My Comment:

This was a disappointing defeat and it showed again that Barca can not afford to make mistakes in the defence against top teams because they will be punished on the spot.
Edmilson´s inactiveness and poor defending was shocking. May be the second goal was a chain of unlucky circumstances but again, there were more than one opportunities to clear the ball out of danger zone.


Gudjohnsen was not able to put any pressure on Valencia´s defence and was either offside or missed several opportunities. The fact that Barca will try to terrorize Liverpool on the ground an not in the air, Frank Rijkaard will have to play either Saviola, Messi or not fully fit Eto´o.


The more or less only good news of yesterday was that Leo Messi is back. The youngster showed some impressive runs and spectacular dribblings and looks fully fit to start against Liverpool.


Barca is still leader, but now has to share the lead with Sevilla again. Valencia and Real Madrid are 4 points behind, but Valencia has the upperhand in the goal average over Barca, so in fact, they are only 3 points behind. Should Barca and Valencia be on equal points at the end of the season, Valencia would win the Champions title.


There are some interesting and exciting weeks ahead of us and I just hope that we get the "untamed lion" Samuel Eto´o back as soon as possible. I can´t wait!


The team will know that they have to do better against Liverpool and I am sure they will do. I am looking forward to a great match on Wednesday against Liverpool.


Visca el Barca!