Excitement turned to dread just 37 minutes into the game as Valencia CF undid itself and allowed an impotent Barcelona to score 3 goals in just over 30 minutes. FC Barcelona's big issue this season has been creating opportunities and scoring goals, but Valencia CF made sure to fix those issues for them!
I listened to the commentators say how Barcelona played well in the first half, but they didn't, they played rather poorly and their attack was terrible, but it was Valencia's defense that was even worse and it allowed ridiculous goals. Looking at the stats Barcelona had just 4 shots on goal in the first half and 3 of those ended up being goals, that is a conversion rate of 75% which is insane, if everyone scored goals like that pretty much all games would have over 5 goals all the time. Just shows you how an impotent Barcelona attack can be so potent against piss poor defending.
Not to berate the defense too much, the midfield was terrible in covering as well, Hugo Guillamon and Illaix failed to cover properly so many times and allowed so many crosses, but the last line of defense was also terrible. Foulquier, Alderete, Diakhaby, Gaya were all caught napping time and time again.
Jose Bordalas took off Hugo Guillamon and brought Maxi Gomez at the start of the second half in a bid to chase the game, and it paid off almost immidiatelly as Valencia CF started attacking and one of the attacks from the left side resulted in a goal. Bryan Gil got the ball wide, ran a bit forward, positioned himself well and provided a dangerous cross into the penalty area to which Soler was the fasters to react and headed the ball past Ter Stegen and into the net.
Valencia CF continued to attack and there were few more tris on goal, but Barcelona got lucky and Pedri got the ball far out of the penalty area, but he was able to position himself well and send in a powerful shot that beat Giorgi and cemented Barca's victory.
Even the 4th goal did not dissuade Valencia CF and they went searching for more goals, Valencia CF did score one more goal, but through VAR it was disallowed, because almost like 2 minutes before the goal throw in was not given, so it begs the question how far can VAR go to disallow goals? Can it go 5 minutes before and because of 1 foul disallow a goal scored 5 minutes later? The way VAR is used and can be used is like a tool to help certain teams and disadvantage others. Isn't it supposed to be used very close to the moment the goal was scored, if there wasn't an immediate foul or offside, NOT go back two hours to disallow a goal because one foul was not given. Its ridiculous and I'm seeing it used as a tool to help and disadvantage other teams, its ridiculous.
Not that any of that matter as the game was already lost and even if Valencia was able to score one or two more goals it would not have been enough, but if it was a close match you can see how these weird VAR uses can change the outcome of the game on a whim.
Jose Bordalas did few more changes as he brought in Racic and Lato for Ilaix and Gaya and this had a really positive effect on Valencia's play as they were able to bully Barca players off the ball and Racic big frame allowed Valencia CF to win more loose balls in the midfield. He was also very motivated and seemed to want to prove himself and he did as he was really important in controlling the midfield and being engaged in some of the attacks.
Overall nothing helped and even though Valencia CF was playing much better in the second half, they couldn't undo what had happened in the first and suffered another devastating loss. There are no positives from the first half, everything was bad and there are some positives from the second half, but the question is how to make this team play like that for the whole game? How can the team be more dominant throughout the whole match, not just in certain periods or in certain half's.
I'm sure this loss would have some fans demand Jose Bordalas head, I'm sure there would be calls for him to resign, and I can certainly understand that, but I just don't see any available coach that will take the job that can do a guaranteed better job. If we had Pellegrini or Pochettino available and willing to join us and Valencia CF brought one of them on, then sure sack Jose Bordalas, but we just don't have many options available and as I said I don't trust many other managers to do a better job.
I'm so disappointed with the team and this performance, I know they played much better in the second half, but that doesn't make up for a terrible first half. They need to play good football for 90 minutes, matches aren't 45 minutes, they are 90 minutes and Valencia CF needs to be fighting every second for 90+ minutes.
What do you think about today's performance, is there any hope, let us know in the comments section!