What a turnaround!!! The last 15 minutes of the match were some of the most exciting moments of football I've watched in a long time, especially from Valencia CF. Now imagine that kind of intensity and intent for most of the match, that would be an extremely exciting and powerful Valencia CF team to watch.
What can I say, from the 80th minute, all the way until the 97th minute, there was a long stoppage time of 7 minutes and towards the end, in the 95th minute Valencia CF managed to equalize the match!
I thought this match was over after they scored their second goal, I thought there was no chance for Valencia CF to equalize against such a defensively solid team and then Atletico Madrid scored a 3rd goal. They were better in ball possession, they were better in passing, they had the initiative as if they were playing at home. I tuned out for about 10 minutes and then tuned in again at about the 70th minute and Valencia CF was looking to attack, was looking for opportunities and was trying to score, even so it would have been hard to image Valencia CF ever equalizing this game and then the 80th minute started passing, Jose Bordalas decided to bring in 3 basically attacking players all at once and replace our defense and Carlos Soler in the 85th minute, last gasp desperation move!
Who would have known that it would actually work, Valencia CF managed to score in the 92th minute through Hugo Duro and then just 3 minutes later score once more to equalize the score and manage to rescue a draw!
I could not believe what I was seeing, it was incredible! This is the type of Valencia CF I want to see all the time, fighting for every ball, running up and down the pitch constantly, running channels, overwhelming the opposition. The last 15 minutes of this match should be the model for Valencia CF!
I think this also shows that we don't have defenders who can push the ball forward, apart from defending our central defenders are unable to push the ball forward and we always end up skipping the midfield. With more players willing to move the ball forward and to receive it we were able to dominate for 15 minutes, we were able to win every single ball and to force Atletico Madrid players to make mistakes!
Again the first 60 minute of this match was Atletico Madrid playing and Valencia CF just doing nothing, the occasional counter attack, the occasional good play, but for the most part sitting back, defending and just crossing the ball far, hoping to somehow score! I did not see Valencia CF getting a result, even when we equalized it was an own goal from Stefan and Valencia CF did not look like they were able to score on their own!
This is a positive result, I would have taken a draw even before the match started, but the team has to improve! This 3-3 result can not be a fluke, we need to see initiative, we need to see a fighting spirit, we need to see playing every match like its a final!