Valencia CF has been on an upward trend for the past several weeks, managing some solid draws against tough competition and winning some scrappy matches against Celta Vigo and Elche to put the team in a good position towards the end of of first half of the season!
Tomorrow Valencia CF will play against city rival UD Levante who'd love to be able to beat their 'older brother' and become the top dog in the family. UD Levante have gathered several former Valencia CF players such as Shkodran Mustafi, Roberto Soldado and Ruben Vezo and with their knowledge of Valencia CF will try to beat us.
As you remember Roberto Soldado was a big money sale to Tottenham, but unfortunately for him he did not celebrate himself in England and after a few bad years there he returned to Spain. Shkodran Mustafi was also a big sale to Arsenal FC and he had a little bit more success in the Premier League, but after a few injuries and few manager changes at Arsenal he lost his position and played second dwindle to the newcomers.
So will Valencia's former players be the downfall of Valencia CF tomorrow or is our current team better than these old players of ours? We'll know for sure tomorrow in what is likely going to be an exciting match between city rivals. I'm expecting a loser match than the previous ones, local matches tend to work that way and while I don't expect much change in the playstyle of Valencia CF, I think we are going to be forced to open up and play more aggressively with Levante scoring the first goal of the match.
Jose Bordalas tested positive for Covid19 around the Elche match and due to Covdi19 policies he won't be on the bench for this match even though he has tested negative for covid19 twice now! The rules state that 10 days must pass before the initial positive test for him to be allowed on the bench and with the team.
To me that is just some bureaucratic mumbo jumbo, he's had two negative tests and feels perfectly good, don't see a reason why he shouldn't be allowed on the bench around other young and healthy individuals who've many of whom have already had covid19 and have natural immunity!
Regardless of that I don't think him not being physically present at the bench will have any effects on the team at all, I think we are going to see the same team we've been seeing for most of this season. I think we are going to play defensively as we've done for most of our match with counter attacks to try and score, I think Levande are going to score first and force Valencia CF to open up and then we'll have an interesting match on our hands. I expect Valencia CF to win this match 3-2, though a 2-2 draw is also possible.