Valencia 3-0 Villarreal

Valencia picked up their first win against Villarreal in the Mestalla for four years. The Submarine went behind after four minutes from a Diakhaby header off a free kick (Coquelin with the assist). There was only one team that was ever going to win this match after that, and they weren’t wearing yellow.

Dani Parejo (who bossed midfield) picked up a loose Vicente Iborra pass and fed Denis Cheryshev—naturally—for the second goal. Chery refrained from celebrating but Luis García Plaza expressed his emotions with an impressive water bottle toss on the Villarreal sideline.

By now Villarreal threw on extra attackers (Samu Chukwueze, Carlos Bacca, and Gerard) but their impact was small. I missed Rodrigo’s third goal but that was probably just as well, as I would have been the one throwing the water bottle!!

Full time 3-0 and it could have been worse, with Parejo and Santi Mina both having shots saved by the woodwork. There have been matches where we were unlucky to lose; this was not one of them. We were well and truly beaten. For all of Valencia’s foibles, they are sitting just outside the European places now, and could still get into fourth if they can play like this on a consistent basis. I’m not going to deny that if we can’t succeed, I’d like to see Valencia do so.

My advice to Sr. Roig? Sell players you can sell now (like Fornals) for good money, because we’re going down and then you’ll get less. It doesn’t seem to matter whom we play or who coaches us, the result is the same. The team has no mental strength, it has no plan, there is no cutting edge to our attack and we can’t control midfield or defend set pieces well. Was there anything today to suggest wins are coming down the road? I didn’t see it.

I hope some players and team personnel read this; I’d love to be proven wrong. Sempre Endavant, Villarreal forever....but it’s sure more fun in the Primera :)