1: Match starts. It will be an interesting game as both teams have good chances to win tonight!
4: GOOOOOOAAAALLLL!!!! Valencia CF scores through Jose Luis Gaya! Valencia CF gets a corner, the corner kick gets deflected few times and ultimately goes towards Gaya who was standing just outside the final third and send in a powerful shot and scores a goal.
9: Good chance by FC Barcelona, a cross goes towards Jordi Alba, he rushes towards the ball, but Gaya just reaches before him and send the ball into corner
10: Counter action developing for Valencia CF on the other side, but Maxi is dispossessed from the ball.
12: Barcelona gets an equalizer, Depay send a pass to Fati and this one with a powerful long range shot beats Cillessen.
17: FC Barcelona having the initiative in the past 5-6 minutes, Valencia CF need to take control of the ball and start bullying Barcelona.
21: Valencia CF with a big chance as Guedes send in a pass into the penalty area, unfortunately no player from Valencia CF is there to take advantage of it.
24: Counter attack for Valencia CF, Maxi gets handles a long range cross, brings the ball down and send a through pass to Guedes, he dribbles past one player and shoots, but his shot goes wide off goal.
32: Barcelona attacking, dangerous cross from the right side, but Paulista clears
35: Another dangerous attack by FC Barcelona, trying few shots towards Valencia's goal, but VCF players covering good and blocking the shots.
38: Penalty for FC Barcelona after a minor contact between Gaya and Fati, there was barely any contact, but its Barcelona the refs have to help them.
40: Memphis Depay scores from the penalty spot, Cillessen had no chance. The penalty was completely weak, 9 out of 10 times in other circumstances that wouldn't be a penalty!
49: Great save by Cillessen after a powerful shot towards goal by Fati, Valencia CF need to step up in this second half.
52: Amazing chance for Valencia CF as Guedes play Soler on in a good position, he shoots but hits the post.
57: Goncalo Guedes shoots from outside the box, but Marc-Andre ter Stegen saves
60: First change for Valencia CF, Hugo Duro leaves for Marcos Andre
66: Chance for Barcelona as Coutinho tries to shoot from the side, but he is covered and the threat neutralized.
83: Good goal kick taken by Maxi Gomez, but goes just wide.
84: Goal by Barcelona, poor marking and tracking by our players allowing Dest to send a cross to Coutinho who found himself alone at goal and easily slotted into the net.
85: Match is over, kind of an easy win for Barcelona as Valencia CF did not took its chances and allowed Barcelona too much space!
93: Final whistle, Barcelona wins against Valencia CF at the Camp Nou.
This is it ladies and gents, Valencia CF lost against FC Barcelona, I said that a draw doesn't benefit either side and we would likely see a winner and we did, unfortunately for us it is Barcelona, they just seemed to want it more tonight. Valencia CF had its chances, we had few good chances in the first half and then also few more good chances in the second half and almost equalized, but luck was not with us. I also think that loose penalty turned the game around, up to that point the game was equal and FC Barcelona didn't seem like they are able to score, but putting them on top just before the half time just negatively affected Valencia CF players.
It was a fairly close game, both teams had their chances, Barcelona were just slightly better and had more of the initiative, but looking at the performance and statistics it was a fairly close match. I think our lack of depth really hurts us, okay you can put in Cheryshev in for Hugo Duro, but who else? Helder Costa has barely featured and even tonight didn't get much minutes, so we have no clue of his performance, but overall our substitutions did not add anything, in fact they seemed to weaken the team.
Worse Valencia CF teams have beaten a much stronger Barcelona, so its a big shame that we could not beat them, this leaves us in a difficult position as we are now cemented in the middle of the table and the great start to the season seems like a distant memory. Thankfully we have some easier matches coming our way and we should be able to make some progress there and acquire some points.