Sevilla seemed like they were going to. A serious mistake by César Tárrega, who scored on his own goal, had left Matías Almeyda’s team ahead and when it seemed that they were leaving Mestalla with three gold points against a direct rival, Hugo Duro appeared one more day to save another afternoon to forget.
1
Julen Agirrezabala, Copete, José Gayà (Jesús Vázquez, min. 76), César Tárrega, Thierry Correia, André Almeida (Filip Ugrinic, min. 62), Javi Guerra (Lucas Beltrán, min. 62), Luis Rioja (Largie Ramazani, min. 67), Pepelu, Arnaut Danjuma (Diego López, min. 62) y Hugo Duro
1
Odysseas Vlachodimos, Nemanja Gudelj, José Ángel Carmona, Andrés Castrín, Oso (Alfon González, min. 84), César Azpilicueta, Peque Fernández (Joan Jordán, min. 80), Djibril Sow, Batista Mendy, Lucien Agoumé (Alexis Sánchez, min. 85) y Akor Adams
Goals
0-1 min. 57: César Tárrega. 1-1 min. 92: Hugo Duro
Referee Guillermo Cuadra Fernandez
yellow cards
Peque (min. 22), Almeyda (min. 27), Copete (min. 73), Azpilicueta (min. 74), Gudelj (min. 75), Lucien Agoume (min. 81), Thierry Correia (min. 86), Andrés Castrín (min. 87), José Ángel Carmona (min. 94), César Tárrega (min. 96)
Valencia and Sevilla arrived at Mestalla thirsty. Two great ones dwarfed and in need of points to avoid crossing the red line. That meant there was a lot at stake between two equals. A lot of tension in the legs of both teams. More fear than ingenuity. Sevilla, a little more patient, took the measure of their opponent and began to frequent the area. It cost Valencia much more. Both teams were so sparing that during the first part of this after-dinner match, the fans remained drowsy.
The midfielders couldn’t quite get into tune and Almeida couldn’t get into the game, so Hugo Duro was left out of coverage. Only Luis Rioja, always Luis Rioja, brought some ingenuity to the black and white game. Three actions of merit that his teammates failed to improve. More scathing was the painting by Matías Almeyda, who warned as soon as he started with a great header from Peque that forced Agirrezabala to put a saving hand in a corner of his goal.
Valencia did not know how to resolve the mess. Sevilla, more physical, with players like Mendy and Agoumé, but also more limited technically, chose not to beat around the bush and insistently search, with long passes, for the Nigerian Akor Adams, a buoy in the Valencia area and the man who worried Agirrezabala the most in the first half.
Carlos Corberán sent his team back with more impetus. But he needed to associate, combine on the way to the area. Djibril Sow was largely to blame for completely nullifying Javi Guerra to cause a short circuit in the construction of Valencia’s game. The midfielder also launched the play for the first goal by putting the ball to Oso, a grown player in his debut who looked for Akor Adams in the area and César Tárrega, very insecure this season, made a mistake in the clearance and scored in his own goal.
The audience fell silent. It is difficult for Valencia to turn around an adverse score. Corberán, who saw Guerra lose the duel in the axis, retired him along with three other players to gain threat in attack, where he placed Lucas Beltrán next to Hugo Duro, with whom he seems more comfortable than as the only striker. The Argentine energized Valencia’s game and Sevilla began to find themselves in trouble for the first time all afternoon.
Sevilla’s response was to block the game, to toughen it to appease Valencia’s awakening. I needed the points and I was willing to do anything. Almeida’s team felt that this was a final, sharpened their boots and began to waste time. He didn’t mind starting to see yellow cards if that was the price for leaving Mestalla with the three points. I wanted to numb the grief.
The game went into stoppage time and the fans felt that the game was slipping away. Another season threatened with relegation. But Valencia did not give up and continued to harass the Sevilla area. He insisted so much that in the end he ended up finding his most recurring savior: Hugo Duro.
