Valencia CF had such an advantage going into this match, with almost half of Real Sociedad squad out injured, the rest fatigued from a mid week match against Bilbao, Valencia CF with pretty much all of its players available for selection and it still isn't enough.
Andoni from Real Sociedad handles the ball with his hand and gives away a penalty, Soler sets up to take it and he misses. We were served a goal on a platter and still couldn't take advantage of it. Then as a punishment for the missed penalty Real Sociedad instantly score a goal. The first real attack by Real Sociedad and our defense makes a mess out of it, and Uros Racic loses his mark, then Soler rushes in but is tricked also and loses the player, Diakhaby comes to cover, but again he doesn't apply enough pressure and Guevara is able to send a shot wide and low, Jaume fails to reach the ball and its a goal.
Then for the second goal Gabriel Paulista just gives the ball away just like that, he wasn't even under pressure or anything, he just literally passed to a Sociedad player, he just ran solo towards our goal, Diakhaby went towards him to mark him, but once again very poor marking, applying no pressure on Alexander who is able to send a shot towards goal, its a weak shot, but Jaume is out of position and doesn't even try and reach for the ball, he just watches as it goes into the net.
The second half a miracle happened, I did not expect Valencia CF to score two goals, heck I thought scoring even one back would be a high order, but luck was on our side today. The referee basically gifted us a second penalty, I don't even think there was a penalty, it could have easily been ruled play on and I wouldn't even have registered it as a possible penalty. So we got lucky, thankfully Wass was precise and scored from the penalty spot.
Scoring a goal from a penalty is one thing, but it looked unlikely that Valencia CF is going to be able to score from open play, but once again a surprise as Gabriel Paulista redeems himself for his earlier mistake and basically canceled out the goal he gifted. The goal came when Soler passed the ball short from a corner kick to Guedes, this one dribbled past his marker and crossed the ball into the penalty area, Paulista ran towards the ball and found himself alone, being able to head the ball into the net.
At this point I though we had a chance to win, luck was on our side, we had the initiative, but Maxi Gomez had other plans for us and got himself sent out. This isn't actually a bad thing, it was bad because he put Valencia CF under needless pressure the last 10-15 minutes as the team was playing with a man down, but otherwise he's been useless, hasn't scored I can't even remember since when, so overall this is a blessing as hopefully someone like Kang-In will be given a chance now that Maxi is suspended for the next 2 games.
Overall a very poor performance today, we got a draw by sheer luck, nothing more. We made mistake after mistake defensively, we did not control the game, we barely had any shots towards Sociedad's goal, so its pure luck that we got a draw out of this match. I thought Soler and Racic were very poor this match, they did not function well together and we did not have a good flow from the back towards the front.
First Half:
10: Valencia CF controlling the tempo so far and having most of the ball possession
20: Maxi Gomez shoots from outside the box, but the ball goes wide
28: Penalty for Valencia CF. Andoni Gorosabel handles the ball in the penalty box
29: Soler misses a penalty, what a joke
32: Guevara scores for Real Sociedad. Poor defending from Racic, Soler and Diakhaby
40: Several interruptions in a row, some treatments needed, probably good 6-7 minutes wasted
44: Paulista with a terrible pass to Alexander who runs forward with the ball, goes into the penalty area, Diakhaby with terrible tracking allows him to shoot and Jaume with a terrible reaction to a weak shot allows for a goal.
45: This is just terrible play and terrible defending, I can not believe the unforced errors and terrible passing. Jaume isn't helping either, poor positioning for both goals. We need Cillessen and we definitely need better defenders in the summer.
Second Half
57: Penalty for Valencia CF. This is pure gift, yeah the defender accidentally stepped on Paulista leg, but it was after he kicked the ball and it was accidental. Can Wass redeem Soler now?
60: GOAL! Wass scores from the penalty spot. Can Valencia CF turn things around now?
62: Chance for Real Sociedad, a good header, but goes just wide
62: Racic and Cheryshev out, Gameiro and Yunus Musha in
65: Good free kick by Mikel, but Jaume saves
72: GOAL!!! Paulista with a powerful header scores a goal. He redeems himself for the mistake earlier, but now Valencia CF need to find a winner.
79: Maxi Gomez red card for protesting. Good riddance, at least he won't play the next two games, hasn't benefited Valencia CF in any way, maybe Kang-In will be given a chance
83: Gameiro ruled offside, close call, it was otherwise a good chance
85: Lato for Guedes, Gracia is going to defend this result
92: Bautista shoots, but directly towards Jaume, he has no issues catching the ball
Player Ratings:
Jaume 4 - Out of position for both goals, the first one was harder to stop, but should have done better for the second goal
Correia 6 - Good play overall, did not venture forward as some of his previous matches, but was good defensively for the most part.
Diakhaby 3.5 - Terrible marking for both goals, while he wasn't directly responsible for the second one, he could have stopped it had he marked better. Doesn't apply one bit of pressure on the player he is marking.
Paulista 5 - Terrible mistake to gift Sociedad a second goal, but kinda redeemed himself by scoring our second goal. Would have been a 3 rating if he didn't cancel out the goal he gifted.
Gaya 5 - Hasn't looked himself for the past two matches, once again a weak defensive display and failed to properly support going forward.
Wass 6 - Scored the penalty for us, but was otherwise ineffective on the wing. Did much better in central midfield as a defensive minded one and provided a lot more cover for the defense.
Soler 4 - Missed a penalty and easily tricked around for the first goal. Lacks the defensive capabilities, and missed a good opportunity to put Valencia CF ahead today.
Racic 4.5 - Just as poor as Soler today in terms of defensive play, did not mark and block properly when Sociedad were attacking, but gets a slightly higher score as he didn't miss a penalty.
Cheryshev 5.5 - Provided few crosses into the penalty area, but was otherwise largely ineffective.
Guedes 6.5 - Once again the most active player in an attacking sense, provided the assist for Paulista and had few dangerous runs.
Gomez 3 - Pathetic performance, got himself sent off towards the end for protesting. Needs to be sold in the summer while we can still get something for him.
Subs:
Yunus N/A
Gameiro N/A
Lato N/A
Oliva N/A