Villarreal, a team that began the season sunk in the standings, continues its unstoppable rise, wisely guided by Marcelino, with a great comeback that brings it even closer to Europe and now has nine consecutive games without losing and four wins in a row. The Castellón team beat a Valencia that has the same objective and that saw its good streak cut short at La Cerámica despite a superb performance by its goalkeeper, Giorgi Mamardashvili, who saved a penalty and made several amazing saves.
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Jorgensen, Mandi, Jorge Cuenca (Carlos Romero, min. 67), Yerson Mosquera, Kiko Femenía, Bertrand Traoré (Capoue, min. 76), Comesaña, Álex Baena (Morales, min. 84), Coquelin (Parejo, min. 45 ), Sörloth and Gonçalo Guedes (Gerard Moreno, min. 67)
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Mamardashvili, Cenk Özkacar, Foulquier (Vazquez Alcalde, 70th minute), Cristhian Ibarguen, Gaya (Thierry Correia, 40th minute), Pepelu, Diego Lopez, Javi Guerra, Sergi Canos (Peter Federico, 45th minute), Yaremchuk (Francisco). Martinez, min. 71) and Hugo Duro
Goals 1-0 min. 53: Jorge Cuenca.
Referee Jorge Figueroa Vázquez
Yellow cards Kiko Femenía (min. 11), Coquelin (min. 35), Gayá (min. 36), Álex Baena (min. 41), Jorge Cuenca (min. 51) and Mandi (min. 69)
The match between these rising teams began with Villarreal dominating, perhaps spurred by their eye-catching victory on Thursday, when they came close to coming back against Olympique. Marcelino’s team made agile offensive transitions and was really close to the goal in the 13th minute. Villarreal’s attack generated up to three consecutive shots and all of them were thwarted by Mamardashvili with three worthy saves. Valencia, on the other hand, was unimaginative and had many difficulties in stalking Jörgensen’s area. Although Gayá, who seems to be releasing glitter when the attack is incorporated, made fabulous control to direct the ball towards the area and then sent a back pass that Canós innocently finished into the hands of Jörgensen.
Halfway through the first half, Valencia stretched and began to find more direct routes towards their opponent’s area. But Villarreal did not allow themselves to be subdued and responded with a great through ball from Coquelin into the heart of the area. When Traoré tried to control him, he was blocked by Gayà in a fatal play for Valencia, who committed a penalty and lost, due to a muscle injury in that same incident, the full-back selected by Luis de la Fuente to play for Spain. There, a larger Mamardashvili emerged again and stopped Álex Baena’s penalty kick.
Marcelino, a coach who made Valencia a Cup champion, did not like losing control of possession and at half-time he brought in Dani Parejo, another former Valencia player. This variation changed the rules of the game and Villarreal began to move the ball as they pleased to cage Valencia. Baraja has already seen many games like this and it is not something that bothers him, as his team demonstrated with two actions that put the team on the ropes. groggy.
The clash began to unravel and the two teams found the area with ease. Villarreal ran into Mamardashvili again and needed up to four shots in two consecutive plays at the beginning of the second half to end up beating the Georgian goalkeeper. With the score in his favor, Parejo, allied with Santi Comesaña, felt in his element and began to slow down.
Valencia, so effective in recent days, was not accurate in its shots. Pipo Baraja’s team, the complete opposite of Parejo’s Villarreal, does not need to amass its attacks much. Three passes and he is planted in the area. In one of those plays Hugo Duro tried it with a colorful overhead kick that did not surprise Jörgensen.
Parejo’s sedative took effect and, little by little, with it nothing is fast, Villarreal subdued Rubén Baraja’s eleven, who saw the ball go from one side to the other without being able to avoid it. But not everything was a waltz in the center of the field, from time to time the yellow submarine released a peck, like a very tight shot that Mamardashvili, once again, put in a miraculous hand that avoided a more bloated result.