Valencia 3-1 Sevilla; Just the Beginning

By: Anthony | April 20th, 2009

Honestly what can I say? Two weeks, two losses, and a whole lot more of the same. We didn’t deserve to lose, or at least the score line doesn’t properly reflect the match. We didn’t even play bad, actually it was far from that but when the referee wants to be the man of the match well then we have quite the situation on our hands don’t we?

When the match was even (and by even I mean numerically, not possession wise) we were the dominant side by miles. We scored a well deserved goal in the 9th minute through our French international defender Julien Escudé on a bullet of a header which left former Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper César stranded and left for dead.

Apparently in the 42nd minute Adriano committed quite the foul as he was given a straight red and sent off for what appeared to be a bit of a miscue on David Villa. To me it looked like a hard foul, but worth a straight red? No way, José. Of course this changed the complexion of the match and definitely not in our favour.

This result definitely is annoying but at the same time there’s nothing to worry about from a Sevillista perspective. The game looked like it was going to be a draw until for some reason Fernando Navarro slapped the ball when it was about 3 metres up in the air. This stupid mistake ultimately cost us the game in which we would have been more content with taking a point out of. It was very uncharacteristic of the Spanish international as he is one of the most solid left backs throughout all of La Liga.

The final nail in the coffin was in added time when Valencia’s young superstar Pablo Hérnandez scored on a counter attack with a bullet which left Palop with no chance.

Conceding goals off two penalties and one from a counter attack definitely shouldn’t dent our confidence because none of the goals were really as a result of our poor play, but rather one questionable decision, one total screw up, and by that time we were pushing for the equaliser and with only Renato and Escudé left back to defend, it was all too easy for the boys in orange.

Just a couple things I want to touch on about yesterday’s match as I am a bit confused. Going into the match, Jiménez’ tactics seemed solid with a five-man midfield consisting of Diego Perotti on the left, Romaric and Duscher in the holding roles, Renato as the centre-forward, and Jesús Navas on the right flank. This proved effective as we bossed the midfield and as a result also totally dominated possession.

Adriano’s red meant we had to change our formation but why take of Perotti for Mosquera? I would have liked to see either Romaric, Renato or Duscher pulled because once Perotti was, we had a similar situation to last week’s defeat to Getafe where we had no width. Okay so we have no left winger, no problem though, Diego Capel was warming up and Jiménez was set to introduce him and then the fourth official holds up the board which illuminates with a red “7″ meaning Navas was the one being pulled. I don’t understand what we’re trying to achieve by playing a left footed player on the right flank where he clearly isn’t comfortable?

In the next three weeks we play Bacelona, Real Madrid and Villarreal so needless to say things aren’t going to be easy by any means. The result against Valencia surely won’t help our confidence but at the same time I don’t think it should hurt it either. We still sit in that third Champions League qualification spot with 57 points, 5 ahead of Valencia who sit in fourth and 8 ahead of Atlético who are fifth.

The next few games are crucial and could either make or break our season, we need to win two out of the next three matches to consider ourselves qualified for next year’s Champions League.