Valencia 2-0 Valladolid: Los Che Cruise To Comfortable Home Win

Valencia 2-0 Valladolid – Lineups/Stats

Valencia strolled to their twelfth La Liga win of the current campaign as they comfortably over powered a poor Valladolid side.

Valencia went into the match knowing that a win would put them just behind Real Madrid in second place. Valladolid look as though they will be scrapping at the bottom for the rest of the season so any thing they could take would be an advantage.

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Valencia dominated the first half and played some very good football. They would have felt unlucky not to have a bigger margin at the break. Valladolid reshuffled in the second half but ultimately their task was too big to over come.

Valencia started the quicker of the two teams. However, their enthusiasm got the better of them by the seventh minute. An early substitution was needed when David Navarro went down with what looked like a bad knock.

Valencia were not rattled by this and powered on. Ever Banega struck just a minute later with a clinical finish that put his team in the lead. Valencia then started racing around the pitch with energy and venom that has seemed to be missing from recent performances.

They should have gone 2-0 up shortly before the quarter of an hour mark but David Villa could not time his run. A superb ball over the top was played and had Villa moved just a moment earlier he would have been in on goal.

Valladolid were stunned by the early attacks and found it difficult to hold the ball for long spells. Borja worked some space but ultimately there was no creativity in the running and movement of the away team’s other attacking players.

Valencia kept the waves coming and it paid off again when David Villa steered in on the half an hour mark. Villa slotted the ball home and gave Justo Villar no chance of saving it.

Valladolid pushed to try and get a goal back but the likes of Costa and Lazaro were being restricted to long range efforts, which were of no real threat. The coach tried a quick re-shuffle from the 4-4-2 formation the team had started out with but it did not seem to be working.

Valencia should have extended their lead a little before the half-time mark. Silva played a slick ball for Mata who scuffed a shot wide when it seemed easier to get it on target.

Valladolid did not sit on their sorrows and made a change at the break. Vitor Pele came on for Jonathan Sesma. However, Pele could not live up to the greatness of his own name and the only thing the move introduced was more energy into the away side.

Valencia were playing with more relaxation in the second half and it showed. Silva and Banega were stroking the ball around and playing some brilliant passes. A little more control from Hernandez around the hour mark could have seen a third goal but the cross went into row z instead of the box.

The away side stuck to their task and tried to get stuck in when they could. Lazaro should have done better with a header with roughly 20 minutes of the match to go. Alberto Calvo came on for the visitors and immediately started playing some good balls and tried to get in behind.

However, the task looked like an up hill one. The Valencia defence was strong and linked in a straight line that made it impossible for Valladolid players to make attacking runs off of Dealbert and Marchena.

Valencia used the comfort of their lead and performance to give run outs to Ruben Baraja and Alejandro Dominguez. Very rarely have Los Che had the chance to mix up the pack so comfortably during a game.

Baraja got into the game quickly and nearly scored with a long range effort just before the 80 minute marker. Valladolid had to try and press up the pitch for a goal and this was leaving plenty of space for the likes of the attacking player to burst forward. 

Fabian Cannobio popped up with a rare appearance in the Valencia half when he curled a ball into the arms of Cesar Sanchez. It seemed that Valladolid could play this game for a million minutes and not get a goal as Valencia defended well, kept the ball and saw the game out with ease.