Valencia twice came from behind to grab a draw against relegation-threatened Rayo Vallecano, but Gary Neville remains without a win in La Liga
If you had offered a single point to Gary Neville before kick-off, he would have batted your hand away. With five minutes to go, he would have bitten your hand off. It’s a result that Valencia fans are becoming accustomed to, that’s the third successive home result that has finished 2-2.
Valencia struggled for fluency all game, even their goals simply came about from making the most of a long punt forward, although you can’t deny that Negredo’s 45-yard lob was a thing of beauty. Neville remains without a win in La Liga.
Rayo scored an excellent first goal, with good play from Jozabed, and a cheap second, but will perhaps feel a bit aggrieved to throw away another lead. They remain in the relegation zone. But there is life in the Madrid team!
Thanks for reading and for your emails and tweets. See you next time. Bye!
Why do Valencia only start playing to their potential in the final 15 minutes of matches?
90+4 min: One final chance for Rayo to punt the ball into Valencia’s area, after Manucho is brought down by Santos. Ah, no dice, well claimed by Ryan. But that’s it, there’s no time for a Valenciacounter-attack!
90+2 min: Rayo doing well to quell Valencia’s momentum, winning free-kicks to slow down the game. Neville is a picture of frustration.
90 min: Valencia pushing for the winner now: Bakkali again tries his luck against Quini but the winger is forced inside. Andre Gomes is the next to surge forward and he plays a neat one-two with Rodrigo but Gomes’s shot is expertly blocked by Ze Castro, who throws himself in front of the ball. Four minutes added on.
It doesn’t matter, Paco has got his goal! Bakkali has made a real difference since coming on, and he gets clear of Quini, mis-controls the ball but recovers well and squares the ball across the six-yard box, where Alcacer taps in at the back post!
86 min: Valencia have the ball in the net, but Alcacer’s strike is ruled offside! Replays show that the Spanish striker timed his run to perfection but the linesman put his flag up! Ooooo, Alcacer is fuming, and he berates the referee but gets nothing more than a yellow card.
85 min: Rayo counter-attack, and rather than hold the ball up, and kill the clock, Manucho does his best Negredo impression and tries to lob Ryan from 50 yards. The ball trickles out for a throw-in.
84 min: Jozabed, who is arguably Rayo’s best creative player (and who has been looking a little leggy of late) comes off for Raúl Baena. Rayo are shutting up shop, 10 men behind the ball.
83 min: Peter Lim, just to let you know, there are alternatives …
81 min: Increasingly desperate stuff, this. Barragan, Valencia’s right back, comes off for Bakkali, the Belgian winger. This should have been a home banker for Neville. Instead his team are fighting for a draw in front of their whistling fans.
78 min: Yellow card for Quini, who chops down Piatti when the substitute might have broken clear. Good foul to give away. A minute later Bangoura is booked for hauling Cancelo to the ground.
77 min: This will suit Rayo just fine. The game has become bitty, and fragmented. Manucho is proving to be a fine target man, and Santos in particular is struggling to get to grips with the 6ft2in striker.
74 min: Bangoura nips in on a loose ball, and for a moment it looks as though he might get one-on-one with Ryan, but Mustafi shows his experience and shepherds the ball out of play, away from danger.
71 min: Every poor pass or heavy touch from Valencia is now being jeered by their fans. Otherwise it is silent in the stadium, save for about 100 Rayo fans jumping up and down in delight in the winter sunshine.
GOAL! Valencia 1-2 Rayo Vallecano (Llorente 68)
Rayo have the lead again! Neville will be fuming, it’s a horrible goal to concede. A Jozabed corner is swung in from the right, nobody attempts to clear the bouncing ball to the near post and Llorente hooks the ball into the top corner with his right foot. Neville throws a bottle of mineral water to the ground in frustration.
67 min: Rayo respond with a change of their own: Manucho, once of Manchester United and Hull City, comes on for Miku, who has looked good in link-up play and had plenty of opportunities but failed to make anything of them.
65 min: Neville takes Negredo off! Seems a strange decision after his goal and the way he has troubled Rayo’s defenders this second half. Alcacer is on.
62 min: Rayo are trying to steady the ship, they have finally got their foot on the ball after a whirlwind 10 minutes. Negredo fouls Tito.
60 min: An hour gone, and Neville makes his first change: Piatti on for Santi Mina. The 20-year-old has had an awful day, he has lost the ball 87,037 times and not beaten his marker once.
58 min: How things change. One goal out of nothing and suddenly, it’s all Valencia! They surge forward on the counterattack, Rodrigo carrying the ball forward on the right. He has Negredo loitering at the back post but instead tries a shot, well saved by Juan Carlos, and luckily for Rayo, the ball breaks to one of their players. If that had fell to Parejo or Santi Mina instead, they surely would have tapped the rebound into an empty net.
GOAL! Valencia 1-1 Rayo Vallecano (Negredo 55)
Out of nothing, Valencia are level. Negredo with a screamer from 45 yards out! Wow, wow, wow. Rayo could so easily have been 2-0 up, but instead they are pegged back. After his miraculous double save, Ryan pumps the ball long towards Negredo. The Valencia striker is outnumbered by three Rayo defenders but battles well and gets the break of the ball, sees Juan Carlos off his line and pings a ball first time over the Rayo goalkeepers head, the ball pinging off the inside of the post and in. The Mestalla erupts!
54 min: Valencia are clinging on! Miku is sent clean through but Ryan rushes out to deny him. Pablo Hernandez picks up the rebound, skips past Barragan and tries to force his shot into the open goal but Ryan again is able to scramble and save.
52 min: What a miss from Miku! Rayo should definitely have extended their lead! Hernandez gets half a yard on Barragan and cuts the ball back from the byline. It’s behind Jozabed but Cancelo mis-controls the ball, which falls to Miku, but the striker can only fire his effort a yard wide of the left-hand post. He has his hands in his head as he looks apologetically towards the Rayo bench.
48 min: Parejo wins a good knock down and for a moment, Negredo looks as though he’s going to be able to get a shot on goal inside Rayo’s area, but the ball runs too wide and then Negredo trips over his own feet and boots the ball out for a Rayo throw-in. Maybe Neville’s decision to rest arguably Valencia’s best striker, Paco Alcacer, was a poor one.
46 min: There definitely seems to be more urgency in the way thatValencia are pressing the ball. I think I just saw Negredo grit his teeth. Woof!
Peeeeeep! Here we go again. Neville, who didn’t leave his seat in the dugout during the first half, is now patrolling his technical area.
Neville has previously admitted that he finds half-time team talks the hardest part of the job, as he needs to get his ideas across, in English, in a short space of time. He was a picture of calm during that first half, as his team cantered around the pitch in a daze. If he’s not breaking some crockery inside that dressing room, I will be surprised.
Coming into this game, Valencia were on their worst run of form since Ronald Koeman was in charge during 2007-08. Rayo were bottom of the form table in La Liga, but they’ve been made to look like a Champions League team by Neville’s boys. Valencia leave the field to boos.
Valencia struggled for fluency all game, even their goals simply came about from making the most of a long punt forward, although you can’t deny that Negredo’s 45-yard lob was a thing of beauty. Neville remains without a win in La Liga.
Rayo scored an excellent first goal, with good play from Jozabed, and a cheap second, but will perhaps feel a bit aggrieved to throw away another lead. They remain in the relegation zone. But there is life in the Madrid team!
Thanks for reading and for your emails and tweets. See you next time. Bye!
Why do Valencia only start playing to their potential in the final 15 minutes of matches?
90+4 min: One final chance for Rayo to punt the ball into Valencia’s area, after Manucho is brought down by Santos. Ah, no dice, well claimed by Ryan. But that’s it, there’s no time for a Valenciacounter-attack!
90+2 min: Rayo doing well to quell Valencia’s momentum, winning free-kicks to slow down the game. Neville is a picture of frustration.
90 min: Valencia pushing for the winner now: Bakkali again tries his luck against Quini but the winger is forced inside. Andre Gomes is the next to surge forward and he plays a neat one-two with Rodrigo but Gomes’s shot is expertly blocked by Ze Castro, who throws himself in front of the ball. Four minutes added on.
It doesn’t matter, Paco has got his goal! Bakkali has made a real difference since coming on, and he gets clear of Quini, mis-controls the ball but recovers well and squares the ball across the six-yard box, where Alcacer taps in at the back post!
86 min: Valencia have the ball in the net, but Alcacer’s strike is ruled offside! Replays show that the Spanish striker timed his run to perfection but the linesman put his flag up! Ooooo, Alcacer is fuming, and he berates the referee but gets nothing more than a yellow card.
85 min: Rayo counter-attack, and rather than hold the ball up, and kill the clock, Manucho does his best Negredo impression and tries to lob Ryan from 50 yards. The ball trickles out for a throw-in.
84 min: Jozabed, who is arguably Rayo’s best creative player (and who has been looking a little leggy of late) comes off for Raúl Baena. Rayo are shutting up shop, 10 men behind the ball.
83 min: Peter Lim, just to let you know, there are alternatives …
81 min: Increasingly desperate stuff, this. Barragan, Valencia’s right back, comes off for Bakkali, the Belgian winger. This should have been a home banker for Neville. Instead his team are fighting for a draw in front of their whistling fans.
78 min: Yellow card for Quini, who chops down Piatti when the substitute might have broken clear. Good foul to give away. A minute later Bangoura is booked for hauling Cancelo to the ground.
77 min: This will suit Rayo just fine. The game has become bitty, and fragmented. Manucho is proving to be a fine target man, and Santos in particular is struggling to get to grips with the 6ft2in striker.
74 min: Bangoura nips in on a loose ball, and for a moment it looks as though he might get one-on-one with Ryan, but Mustafi shows his experience and shepherds the ball out of play, away from danger.
71 min: Every poor pass or heavy touch from Valencia is now being jeered by their fans. Otherwise it is silent in the stadium, save for about 100 Rayo fans jumping up and down in delight in the winter sunshine.
GOAL! Valencia 1-2 Rayo Vallecano (Llorente 68)
Rayo have the lead again! Neville will be fuming, it’s a horrible goal to concede. A Jozabed corner is swung in from the right, nobody attempts to clear the bouncing ball to the near post and Llorente hooks the ball into the top corner with his right foot. Neville throws a bottle of mineral water to the ground in frustration.
67 min: Rayo respond with a change of their own: Manucho, once of Manchester United and Hull City, comes on for Miku, who has looked good in link-up play and had plenty of opportunities but failed to make anything of them.
65 min: Neville takes Negredo off! Seems a strange decision after his goal and the way he has troubled Rayo’s defenders this second half. Alcacer is on.
62 min: Rayo are trying to steady the ship, they have finally got their foot on the ball after a whirlwind 10 minutes. Negredo fouls Tito.
60 min: An hour gone, and Neville makes his first change: Piatti on for Santi Mina. The 20-year-old has had an awful day, he has lost the ball 87,037 times and not beaten his marker once.
58 min: How things change. One goal out of nothing and suddenly, it’s all Valencia! They surge forward on the counterattack, Rodrigo carrying the ball forward on the right. He has Negredo loitering at the back post but instead tries a shot, well saved by Juan Carlos, and luckily for Rayo, the ball breaks to one of their players. If that had fell to Parejo or Santi Mina instead, they surely would have tapped the rebound into an empty net.
GOAL! Valencia 1-1 Rayo Vallecano (Negredo 55)
Out of nothing, Valencia are level. Negredo with a screamer from 45 yards out! Wow, wow, wow. Rayo could so easily have been 2-0 up, but instead they are pegged back. After his miraculous double save, Ryan pumps the ball long towards Negredo. The Valencia striker is outnumbered by three Rayo defenders but battles well and gets the break of the ball, sees Juan Carlos off his line and pings a ball first time over the Rayo goalkeepers head, the ball pinging off the inside of the post and in. The Mestalla erupts!
54 min: Valencia are clinging on! Miku is sent clean through but Ryan rushes out to deny him. Pablo Hernandez picks up the rebound, skips past Barragan and tries to force his shot into the open goal but Ryan again is able to scramble and save.
52 min: What a miss from Miku! Rayo should definitely have extended their lead! Hernandez gets half a yard on Barragan and cuts the ball back from the byline. It’s behind Jozabed but Cancelo mis-controls the ball, which falls to Miku, but the striker can only fire his effort a yard wide of the left-hand post. He has his hands in his head as he looks apologetically towards the Rayo bench.
48 min: Parejo wins a good knock down and for a moment, Negredo looks as though he’s going to be able to get a shot on goal inside Rayo’s area, but the ball runs too wide and then Negredo trips over his own feet and boots the ball out for a Rayo throw-in. Maybe Neville’s decision to rest arguably Valencia’s best striker, Paco Alcacer, was a poor one.
46 min: There definitely seems to be more urgency in the way thatValencia are pressing the ball. I think I just saw Negredo grit his teeth. Woof!
Peeeeeep! Here we go again. Neville, who didn’t leave his seat in the dugout during the first half, is now patrolling his technical area.
Neville has previously admitted that he finds half-time team talks the hardest part of the job, as he needs to get his ideas across, in English, in a short space of time. He was a picture of calm during that first half, as his team cantered around the pitch in a daze. If he’s not breaking some crockery inside that dressing room, I will be surprised.
Coming into this game, Valencia were on their worst run of form since Ronald Koeman was in charge during 2007-08. Rayo were bottom of the form table in La Liga, but they’ve been made to look like a Champions League team by Neville’s boys. Valencia leave the field to boos.
No comments:
Post a Comment