After an exciting finish to the match it ends in a draw, which is realistically the fairest result. Real Sociedad dominated the first half and were the better team, with Valencia CF dominating the second half and being the better team. Both teams had some decent chances to score, I'd say Valencia CF more so, with a great opportunity for Maxi Gomez in the second half when he was basically alone one on one with the goalkeeper, but his shot was straight into the goalkeeper.
Jose Bordalas chose a very defensive lineup for this match with a 5 man defense and a 3 man midfield and unsurprisingly Valencia's midfield got overrun and Real Sociedad dominated the whole first half and Valencia CF relegated to long range efforts that led to nowhere. Good thing is that Valencia CF held in the first half, although Real Sociedad did threaten the goal on a few occasions, with Giorgi having to intervene with a solid parade to save the goal.
Jose Bordalas made changed on half time and introduced Carlos Soler in place of Cristhian Mosquera who was on a yellow card and seemed likely to get sent off if he continued. This change did wonders for the team and Valencia CF actually played some good football in the second half, going immediately on the offensive and threatening Real Scoiedad's goal. Few big chances would come up for Valencia as Jose Gaya first sent a powerful shot from long range, then Maxi Gomez found himself in a great goal scoring opportunity after a perfect through ball by Bryan Gil, but Maxi's shot went straight into the keeper. Later on it was Bryan Gil again with the attack this time he dribbled past a player and send a shot towards goal, though only through the center line and in the path of the goalkeeper.
Valencia CF coach brought even more attacking options as he introduced Racic and Guedes and it was full force trying to score a goal, but for all of the attacking Valencia CF did there was no end result. Towards the end of the match the game became scrappy and neither team was able to string more than a few passes together with both teams relying on long balls and headers to move the ball around.
The match ended in a 0-0 draw and this leaves Valencia CF 5 points bellow 6th placed Real Sociedad and 3 points off of 7th place, but a match down on Villarreal who play later today. I think its safe to say that Valencia CF is out of the running for European football and it would take a miracle for achieve that. Yes there is still plenty of matches left, but judging from our play and results it seems unlikely that we'll manage to gain more points over the higher placed team right now, especially as Valencia CF will be focused on the cup in the coming weeks as there we have a chance to place in the final and there is also very tough matches coming up in La Liga.
The standout performer for me was Bryan Gil, I think he has a great future and showed today why he is valued so highly. I hope we get to see him play alongside Guedes more though as these are our two most creative players and I would think featuring them both in the lineup would benefit Valencia.