Matchday 1 Review
- Callum McIlwaine
- Aug 23, 2024
- 6 min read
Valencia CF Vs. FC Barcelona
Mestalla, 17 Aug 2024
Final Score: Valencia CF 1 - 2 FC Barcelona
Welcome back to La Liga round up for the start of the 24/25 season, as mentioned on X, we will strip back the reviews and focus on one game per matchday as part of our reviews. This week we are focusing on the clash of Valencia and Barcelona as one of the most exciting opening games of the new season.
Valencia had a point to prove here, finishing well in the last campaign, the home side were looking to kick off their season in high spirits. They were met by a Barcelona side that had a lot to play for after a disappointing and uncharacteristically trophy-less season last time out, this is what led us to follow this bout between the two clubs.
Kick off at Mestalla in the sweltering heat, even at around 9:30pm local time it was still reaching into the 30's C. This lead to some early rough meetings with the Valencian's letting Barcelona that this is their home and that they can't come into it expecting for an easy night. For the first 15 minutes of the game, Barcelona seemed to have figured out how to deal with the early nerves and had settled into a familiar Barcelona rhythm that we have been used to seeing in La Liga with wonder-kid Lamine Yamal running the right flank partnered by Kounde, rolling back the years of the Dani Alves x Messi partnership with the overlapping plays. What will be said about Valencia however, is that they defended excellently in the opening minutes of the game, center back Mosquera and goalkeeper Marmadashvili absolutely bossing the defensive line and proving really difficult to break down. The commentary mentioned on more than one occasion that players like Lewandowski and Ferran Torres' names were hardly mentioned throughout the opening half for the Barcelona attacking force, seemed to be mainly running through Yamal on the flank. After the first quarter of an hour, Valencia seemed to figure out the Barcelona back line pretty well, seeing a defensive vulnerability in the flanks as both full backs were making forward runs. Almeida had the first real opportunity for the home side who played a great cut back into the box after bursting through the left side of the Barcelona backline, the resulting shot went narrowly wide, but this was the first of the warning signs. After a couple of balls over the top or through the line for Valencia that were ultimately ruled out for offside, the best opportunity of the half to this point came when Diego Lopez's cross deflected off of Cubarsi and nearly wrong-footed Barcelona captain and goalkeeper Ter Stegen who had to adjust to get down to his near post to make the save, a great reaction seeing as Hugo Duro was diving in to pick up the scraps from the keeper. The rest of the half after the water break at the half hour mark was really a war of mindset as both teams were continuously trying to break through defensive set ups with some excellent play and good passing moves, Valencia once again get through with Hugo Duro but the partnership of Cubarsi and Martinez were organised and this was ruled as offside. This is when the first half absolutely erupted with energy, on the 43 minute mark, a stunning cross was played into the Barcelona box towards Hugo Duro on the edge of the 6 yard box, the Valencia striker peels away from the back of Martinez to have an open header that he expertly plays over the stuck Ter Stegen. The movement and precision of the header was a prime strikers goal and was later ruled as onside through the VAR review, no contest, 1-0 Valencia. 5 minutes of added time meant now that Barcelona were to go for it all guns blazing to go into half time with something to be positive about. Attack they did - Balde plays a ball into the box that is deflected out and the youngster Casado has a swing at it, deflected, but promising. Directly after this - Valencia go on the offensive to try and double their lead going into half time, Mestalla driving them along with a (literally) jumping atmosphere. A mistake from Ter Stegen with a very poor clearance was pounced upon and the shot played past the Barcelona goalkeeper heading in but not for the efforts of Cubarsi who makes a goal line save to keep the away team from going 2-0 down. With all this excitement, the Valencia backline had clearly showed to much effort to defending the side of Yamal when Balde was able to run down the left side and play a cross into the box. It lands with Yamal at the back post who plays it back across the danger area of the box for Lewandowski (who was really quiet up until now) to have a tap in past the goalkeeper Marmadashvili, finally beating the Georgian who seemed to be impenetrable by this point in the half. VAR review over and Barcelona finish the half 1-1 with the home side - only took 43 minutes to get moving!
Second half starts and Barcelona come out the gates with fury, Yamal unable to bring the ball down to properly get the shot away literally seconds into the half, Raphina is starting to make a nuisance of himself to Valencia defence. This is when Mosquera, who was been solid up until this point, makes a mistake and brings the Brazilian down in the box, penalty to Barcelona! Lewandowski stands over the ball, it takes around 2 minutes from the original foul for the penalty to actually be take but the Barcelona striker rifles it into the top right corner of the net leaving absolutely no chance for Marmadashvili, who guessed the correct direction, to get a hand on it. 2-1 Barcelona early in the second half. Valencia responded really well to this though with some efforts of their own, Hugo Duro dives in for a header of the ball only to narrowly miss it, this has been a really fast start to the second half, Mestalla are loving it. Excitement turns into tension though as Cubarsi brings Hugo Duro down on the halfway line but sees no reprimanding from the referee, a decision not exactly welcomed by the home crowd as it would have meant a second yellow for the young defender. The weather was really starting to play its part into the second half, both teams looking tired out there, a couple of tactical substitutions from both managers helped with this to bring fresh legs and minds on to the pitch to keep the game alive. What these changes did mean was that the Barcelona system started to break down a little, new manager must mean new roles for some of the players and a lot of the regular starting 11 from last season not being on the pitch meant that the smoothness and understanding of positioning starting to falter slightly, leading to some nervy moments at the back line. Valencia, on the complete opposite side of this, had the squad depth and system much more trained and the changes for the home team had a much smaller impact on play, this was showing in the closing minutes with the defensive line being as organised at minutes 80 as they were at kick off. This organisation didn't seem to do much further up the pitch with Barcelona closing the game with the better attacking opportunities, Pedri from distance, Casado missing a cutback, Lewandowski skying a chance late on was that that there was to say in the closing minutes of the game. One final attack from Valencia to see if they could do to Barcelona what happened to them at the end of the first half ended up not working and the final whistle blew with the visitors taking the victory and Hansi Flick's first competitive win as Barcelona manager. With the game finishing 1-2 to the away team, Barcelona started the season as they meant to go on, Valencia however might be one to watch on the defensive stats at the end of the season, that is one seriously well drilled back line.
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