Classic Valencia CF! We can't seem to be able to win a straight match, today was an overall good performance, Valencia CF had most of the possession and was a lot more dangerous with that possession as well, creating dozen of chances mostly through Guedes who was really on fire in this match, but Valencia players were really wasteful in front of goal.
Guedes provided several good passes to Gameiro and Maxi Gomez who failed to score time and time again. We had at least 4 solid chances in the first half to get ahead, had we converted some of those chances the team could easily have been up by two goals, possibly even more, but again we were very wasteful in front of goal and failed to score.
The second half was similar to the first in that Valencia CF had the initiative, had opportunities, but again very wasteful and casual in front of goal. Gameiro would score in the 56th minute what was in my opinion a legitimate goal, but for some reason it got checked by VAR and they decide it wasn't a goal, how, why, I have no clue! It wasn't an offside, literally millimeters to decide, I don't think a human can really make that decision that its offside based on millimeters, and even if it was, it wasn't reflective on the play, meaning the offside didn't affect the goal at all. I don't understand why was the goal even being checked? Why even have referees on the field if every goal and every things is going to be checked by VAR?
Anyways the goal get ruled out, CD Alaves would punish us as they had a good chance to score in the 66th minute, but Jaume with a good intervention. The next 5-6 minutes its a back and forth, but Valencia CF clearly went into lower gear and with all of our wasted chances and missed opportunities, CF Alaves would punish us. After some commotion in the penalty area, the ball somehow manages to reach Guidetti who basically taps the ball towards goal, Jaume get a leg to it, but its not enough to stop it from going in.
Valencia CF increased the intensity immediately and started attacking again, thankfully just 4 minutes after Gaya scores a goal. It would have been embarrassing if we had lost this game, especially after an overall good display.
I though we played quite well today, especially Guedes, if we take him out of the picture it was a mediocre performance, but he personally created 5-6 chances for our team, but none of our attackers wore their scoring shoes this match. Even our defense did well overall, yeah Alaves created two opportunities, one of which they scored, but had we scored from all of our chances and been 2-0 up, it would have been nothing, having the opposition create few opportunities per match isn't a lot, though we still need to improve defensively, especially from set pieces.
There were no defensive blunders, I thought Hugo and Paulista played well together, considering they haven't played too much together, they haven't gelled together, so a good defensive partnership.
First Half:
1: The match starts, Valencia CF with the initiative in the beginning minutes
3: Gaya with an early yellow card, might have to be replaced early in the second half to avoid a possible 2nd yellow card
6: Gameiro gets the ball in a dangerous spot, but he casually gives away the ball
7: Free kick for Valencia CF, Guedes is brought down near the penalty area
9: Goal for Alaves, but ruled offside and rightfully so
13: Guedes with a good attack on the left, dribbles past his marker, passes in space, but no VCF player is there
14: Guedes amazing through ball to Maxi Gomez, he finds himself alone running at goal, but is late to shoot and his effort is blocked
15: Hugo with a shot in the penalty area, but his shot goes high
17: Guedes with another through ball for Maxi Gomez, but he is offside
29: Gaya with a cross from the left, Valencia CF get a corner kick out of it
38: Soler with a counter attack, he passes to Guedes, but this ones fails to control the ball, gets a throw-in out of it though
43: Valencia CF trying to create something here
45: Good run by Gaya, going past few defenders, passes to Yunus, but he mishandles the ball and get it taken from him
Second Half:
50: Racic with a wishful long range effort, goes wide
51: Incredible chance for Valencia CF, Guedes beats his marker, enters the penalty area and releases a dangerous pass towards Gamiro, but this one doesn't quite get his foot on the ball. Real shame, should have been a goal
56: Goooooaaaaallll!!! Goal, goal, goal!
56: Guedes passes the ball towards Gameiro, but he moves, Alves defender kicks the ball away, but it bounces off of another Alaves player and into Guedes's path, he catches up to the ball and passes into the incoming Gameiro who puts the ball into the net.
60: OMG! VAR overrules the goal, what a load of horse manure! It was a clear goal, clear as day! Why is literally everything being checked by VAR these days? Why even have referees on the field? It should only be checked on very dubious goals, very suspect goals or suspect things, not something no one even thinks about! Does Real Madrid get every goal they score checked?
66: Chance for CD Alaves, Jaume with a great parade punches the ball away
70: Soler with a shot, get blocked
84: Goal CD Alaves. After a free kick for them, chaos in VCF penalty area, Paulista jumps to head the ball, but is a bit off, the ball finds its way to Guidetti, he shoots, its a low and weak effort, but Jaume's momentum is on the other side, he gets a leg to the ball, but not enough to stop it
88: GOOOOOOAAAAAALLLL!!! Jose Luis Gaya with a goal to put Valencia CF back level.
88: Maxi with a header, Fernando saves, but the rebound finds its way to Gaya, who slots the ball into the net
90: Valencia CF still attacking, trying to find a winner, but don't think there is time
95: The whistle blows for the end, Valencia CF could easily have been 2-3 goals up, but we find ourselves chasing for a draw at the end, thankfully we get one goal back quickly to at least get a point.
Player Ratings:
Jaume 6.5 - Had a decent performance, wasn't tested too much today as Alaves mostly sat back and hit us several times on the counter, but he did have few very good saves.
Wass 6 - Good performance both in defense and attack, mostly simple but precise passes.
Paulista 6 - Hard to blame him for the goal, it was one of those chaotic situations. Was otherwise very secure at the back.
Hugo 6 - Good performance with no mistakes, good and precise passing from the back and on this performance deserves to start over Diakhaby, though still needs to be tested against better opposition.
Gaya 6.5 - Overall good defensive display, an improvement over some of his recent previous performances, scored the crucial goal to put Valencia level and salvage a point.
Yunus 4.5 - Completely ineffective, either was nowhere to be found or when he got the ball he just dribbles until he loses the ball, not ready yet for prime time
Soler 6 - Did a solid job in midfield, together with Racic control the ball, controlled the tempo, can't be expected to be perfect, the forwards should have scored and made his job easier.
Racic 6 - Good performance, combined well with everyone, particularly with Soler and together formed a strong midfield
Guedes 8 - On fire towards the end of the season, he can be an asset to all of the top clubs in this form and if we keep him all the better as we have a top player when he is in form, if VCF wants to sell him then with these performances his price is going to be very high. Provided assist after assist, pass after pass, but we just don't have forwards that are going to score unless they have 4-5 clear chances each.
Maxi Gomez 4 - I'm not seeing the good in him, why start him over Cutrone? What has he done to deserve to be starting? Another pathetic display with nothing to show for.
Gameiro 5.5 - Would have been the hero of the match had the goal stood, but VAR ruled no goal. Was otherwise wasteful in possession and slow to react, though tried to be more active and search for the ball. As bad as he is, still a much better performance than Maxi.
Subs:
Cheryshev 5 - Came in and a few decent runs and passes, but nothing substantial, nothing major, nothing that would change the game in Valencia's favor. He just recently came back after a very long injury, so needs time to get into the groove, but meanwhile he is not contributing enough
Vallejo N/A - Not really an upgrade over Gameiro, though 5-6 minutes after his introduction Valencia CF stepped off the gas and playing defense for a while until Alaves scored and gave them a rude awakening. So hard to judge his performance