Valencia get convincing 2-0 win against Valladolid
6 February 2010 - By Kyle Coppess
 
Valencia dominated Valladolid on Saturday for the entire match  and walked away easy 2-0 winners, and truth be told, it could have been much worse for Valladolid if Los Che hadn't wasted multiple chances.
 
Unai Emery made some changes to the lineup this week after last week's 2-1 loss to Sevilla:
 
César Sánchez
Bruno Saltor   David Navarro   Ángel Dealbert   Jérémy Mathieu
David Albelda   Éver Banega
Pablo Hernández   David Silva   Juan Mata
David Villa
 
After only five minutes, Emery was forced to make a change after Navarro came off injured. Navarro seemed to suffer a non-contact leg injury. Carlos Marchena replaced him in defense.
 
Almost immediately after that, Banega scored his second goal of the season, and this goal was just as good as the one he scored against Villarreal. The early lead after just eight minutes seemed to really give VCF the confidence they needed to dominate Valladolid.
 
Mata, who hasn't been in the best of form recently, almost gave the home team a 2-0 lead when he headed a Mathieu cross at Villar's goal, but the Valladolid goalkeeper did very well to palm it over the bar.
 
Banega would have another crack at goal a few moments later from a Pablo short corner, but this strike wasn't as ferocious as the first and Villar easily made the save.
 
 
 
Diego Costa gave Marchena a scare in the 24th minute, but the defender held the Brazilian off the ball long enough for César to clear the danger.
 
Banega and Mata, Valencia's two best players on the night, combined well down the left flank, and Mata's cross found Silva inside the area, but his header missed the goal, but not by much.
 
VCF would score two minutes later though, as Mata's short corner found Silva, and then Banega, who's cross into the box found a flying David Villa and the Spaniard made no mistake. His diving header was unstoppable.
 
Silva and Villa would both have chances to extended the lead before halftime, but Villar was in fine form for Valladolid, and if it wasn't for him, Valladolid could have easily conceded seven or eight goals.
 
Mata released Villa at the end of the half, and Villa chipped Villar, but his effort rolled wide of the post.
 

 
The second half would be more of the same.
 
César Arzo's header for Valladolid was the first real chance of the second half, but it went wide of the VCF goal.
 
Marchena and Costa would go one-on-one again, but this time César couldn't help out Marchena. Costa and Marchena both went down after a Marchena tackle. Costa claimed that he was fouled, but the referee didn't listen and waved play on.
 
Pablo almost gifted Valladolid a goal three minutes later though. His back pass to César was intercepted by Costa, but César was fast off his line and blocked the striker's shot.
 
The attacking trio of Villa, Silva, and Mata was deadly tonight, and they combined at the hour mark again. Villa's effort would hit the post, and Pablo's follow-up effort was blocked by the Valladolid defense.
 
Pablo would make way for Chori Domínguez in the 69th minute.
 
On loan midfielder Pelé's shot from 40 yards almost caught César out, but it had just a little bit too much power on it and barley went over the crossbar.
 
Another VCF player would go off injured in this match when Rubén Baraja replaced David Albelda in the 71st minute.
 
In the last twenty minutes, Valencia had at least eight clear chances to score, with the majority of those shots coming from Mata. The winger did miss a few of them, but in his defense, Villar made a couple of good saves as well.
 
Chori also got involved in the action with a thunderous shot in the 86th minute that Villar couldn't catch, but instead pushed the ball away from goal.
 
Asier del Horno had a header for the visitors with ten minutes left, and he almost scored on his Valladolid debut, but César was alert and pushed the header over the crossbar.
 
The match would end 2-0, but if Valencia had converted more of their chances, it could have been 7-0 or 8-0 at least.
 
Player Ratings
 
César Sánchez - 8 - Didn't have much to do, but was always alert and bailed out the defense on a couple of occasions.
 
Bruno Saltor - 7.5 - Solid match. Didn't provide much going forward, but did make a couple of good clearances inside the penalty box.
 
David Navarro - N/A - Went off injured after only five minutes.
 
Ángel Dealbert - 7.5 - Typical solid performance from Dealbert.
 
Jérémy Mathieu - 8 - Was awesome offensively and defensively. Dominated the left side of the field.
 
David Albelda - 6.5 - Was invisible for long stretches of the match. With Banega dominating midfield, all Albelda had to do was just sit back and watch. He didn't make any mistakes though, unlike last week against Sevilla.
 
Éver Banega - 10 - Did everything. Scored, got an assist, dribbled around multiple players, worked hard on defense. Truly complete performance.
 
Pablo Hernández - 5.5 - Had a couple of good moments, had a couple of bad moments, and did a lot of nothing in between.
 
David Silva - 8 - Worked well with Mata and Villa up front. Had a header barely saved by Villar.
 
Juan Mata - 8.5 - Was involved in almost every Valencia attack tonight. Had at least seven or eight chances to score. If he had wore his shooting boots, he would have got at least two goals, if not more.
 
David Villa - 8 - Got a goal, hit the post, overall good match.
 
Substitutes
 
Carlos Marchena - 6.5 - Had a couple of iffy moments (possible penalty on Costa, miscommunication with César), but they didn't cost Los Che any goals.
 
Chori Domínguez - 7 - Very good showing. Had a good hard shot on target, and had some good build-up play. Perhaps next time he can play for more than 20 minutes.
 
Rubén Baraja - 4.5 - Looked slow and clumsy.