Valencia CF plan against FC Barcelona was to sit back and defend with numbers, park the bus type of strategy and hit FC Barcelona on the counter, all good, but you need to have a solid defense for that and Valencia CF doesn't! The team did hold out for about 55 to 60 minutes truth be told, but then the flood gates opened and Barca scored three goals in succession.
Valencia CF wasn't without its chances, Gaya had an early chance which he blew, Guedes had a good chance later on, Racic, Guedes in the second half, etc... We had our chances, there were good chances as well, but we didn't manage to score from them! Its also shameful when our defenders seem to have more goals than our attackers, though our defense is with its own set of issues!
It was a fairly close game all and all, yeah Barca had a little bit more chances and complete ball control, but Valencia CF was with its own serious chances and the result could have easily been 3-3 or 2-2 or 4-4 or whatever had Valencia CF took at least one of its early chances!
Positives from this match is that Cillessen came back and he's in great form, several stops to deny Barcelona more goals, Guedes continues with his impressive form, though might need to work on his own finishing so he can score more goals when he has the chances.
Correia had a solid match all the way until the last several minutes, towards the end he lost few silly balls, but fatigue started kicking in and I'll look past those few mistakes!
Overall a disappointing result and a disappointing performance, we desperately need to improve defensively and our finishing. We created numerous chances today, same with the previous match, but time and time again our players fail to score from good positions and from good chances! You are never going to have empty goal and the ball waiting to be tapped into the net, you always have to fight for a shot, fight for position, so our players must do better.
I can't believe we had so many chances, Cillessen saved a penalty, we scored two goals and in the end its still a loss! Sums up our season perfectly though, we can never see out a game and get points even when the team plays well and scores goals and creates chances!
First Half:
1: Match starts. Correia and Cillessen are in the starting eleven for VCF
3: Barcelona with an early chance, Pedri misses
7: Maxi Gomez early yellow, might want to replace hi early in the second half to avoid him making some stupid decision and getting himself sent off.
13: Araujo with a great chance for Barcelona, but Cillessen rises up to the occasion and saves. This doesn't look good for Valencia, barely 15 minutes in and Barcelona already with two very good chances
17: Griezman with a chance for Barca, nothing comes out of it
18: Valencia CF is looking really vulnerable in defense here
19: Guedes starts a counter attack, good pass to Gaya, Gaya runs forward with the ball and shoots, but his shot is wide
25: Gaya with a pass to Racic, he shoots, but the ball goes directly to the keeper
39: Good cross from the right for Barcelona, the ball flies towards Griezman, but he fails to reach the ball
40: Good 10 minutes of continuous Barcelona attacking, a point won't be the worst, hopefully we can score from a counter attack, Valencia CF had few good chances through counters
Second Half:
48: Great solo run by Soler, passes into space for Guedes, this one dribbles past Pique, but his shot goes straight at the keeper.
49: GOOOOOOAAAALLL!!! Paulista scores with a header, the goal is checked by VAR, goal cleared, Valencia CF leads 1-0. Amunt!\
51: Counter for Valencia CF, Guedes with a long range cross for Correia, but he can't quite hit the ball properly and it goes wide. Good chance, could have been 2-0.
55: Penalty for Barcelona, Lato handles the ball in the penalty area and the ref points to the spot
55: Cillessen saves the penalty, but the rebound is swooped by a barca player, he shoots and Paulista blocks the shot, but again the rebound goes to Messi who scores! Very unfortunate!
62: Goal for Barcelona. De Jong with a header towards goal, Cillessen saves, but the rebound is next to Griezman who scores! How is such a tiny player completely unmarked to head the ball like that is a mystery to me!
68: Messi Scores from a free kick. Match is over, the needless penalty given, then the stupid second goal, no markers for any of the barca players, no players at positions to clear the ball, even though we are with 5 defenders. Its not the quantity of defenders, its the quality!
83: GOOAAAALLL! Soler with a long range shot, beats the keeper and scores. Valencia CF has a tiny chance to save a point here, just one more goal!
85: Valencia CF pushing to create something here, but I think its a bit too little, too late!
94: Final whistle, another terrible loss for Valencia CF. The team had its chances, but the biggest weakness is our defense!
Player Ratings:
Cillessen 8.5 - Had so many saves, if it wasn't for him it could have been a bigger score for Barcelona.
Correia 6.5 - Solid performance even after coming back from injury, is turning into a great player
Paulista 5.5 - Scored the goal for Valencia CF, but also lost De Jong for the header that led to Barca's second goal.
Hugo 5.5 - Had a mediocre performance, not necessarily his fault for the goals, but was suspect at times and not in the best positions.
Lato 5 - I think he did great before that needless hand, the ball was going toward Griezman, but he could have covered him quickly, without giving away a penalty.
Gaya 6 - Did well defensively and did go forward a good amount, providing few crosses and passes and had a great chance himself to put Valencia CF up, but his shot was completely inaccurate!
Wass 5.5 - Okay performance, hard to judge as it was a mess in defense and VCF mostly defended, but had good precise passes and good moving the ball from the back.
Soler 6 - Scores a stunner from long range, but none of these goals matter when Valencia CF has a giant hole in defense! If we just had a solid defense we could have probably won at least 5/6 of the matches we lost or drew!
Racic 5 - Did an okay job purely defending, as that was VCF plan today, to defend with numbers and hit them at the counter, did an okay job.
Guedes 6.5 - Once again the playmaker for the team, created numerous chances and had few chances himself, but failed to covert. Still a solid performance, will be disappointed no one managed to score from the chances he created.
Maxi Gomez 2 - I just can't find any positives at all. I know VCF mostly defended, but how come Guedes, Gaya, Correia, etc... all find themselves in scoring situations, but Maxi doesn't? How come everyone contributes something and he doesn't. Its like we don't even have a center forward!
Subs:
Diakhaby N/A
Oliva N/A
Gameiro N/A