- Data Match statistics
The unbeatable league of Athletic in San Mamés was going for a whole year. The last time the rojiblancos lost at home, in the derby last season against Real, the club had another president, another sports director, another coach and another captain. There were only seven days left to celebrate the event, so Valencia was the last obstacle on the calendar to achieve it. It happened, however, that the group ché refused to participate in the party and chose to burst the lock of San Mamés . He only needed one goal, the work of Cheryshev , to score the three points and quickly forget the draw against Getafe on Wednesday.
Valencia managed to avoid the usual initial pressure of the Athletic that the previous visitors of San Mamés had suffered. He achieved that the first minutes were a give and take and then imposed his dominance, both moving the ball in static and counterattack, seated on the traditional 4-4-2 of the ché set that Celades has decided, with apparent good judgment, to embrace. Before the goal of Cheryshev that decided the duel, Valencia already launched three serious notices to its rival. Maxi Gomez put together two dangerous shots, both deflected by centimeters and Garay tested Simon's reflexes, back to the starting eleven, with an unexpected volley from outside the area.
So much was the pitcher to the source that in the end Athletic broke in his very noses. It was in a vertiginous counterattack in which the rojiblancos laterals, Capa and Yuri, were clearly surpassed by their opponents. Ferran Torres was the one who attended and Cheryshev who finished off without opposition in the area. The play, though, was preceded by a possible offside of Maxi Gómez : the VAR ratified that there was none . Subsequently, the television showed a line (served by the VAR itself) in which it is found that the Uruguayan was enabled by millimeters, minutes after showing another of his own that did not clarify anything. In summary, the referee was right in his decision to concede the goal.
Valencia had made Athletic look much more like its usual home version than the one shown in San Mamés, where so far no one had scored a single goal. From the meantime, the whole of Celades lowered the revolutions to the party and allowed his rival to have more initiative. The problem for Garitano's was that he lacked offensive lucidity and hardly hurt Valencia. Barely a tall header from Raúl García and an angleless shot by Williams adorned Athletic's baggage of occasions before the break.
The second part began with the same script as the first, with a shot of Maxi Gómez among the centrals that Simon drew brilliantly. From then on, however, Athletic began to grow in the match thanks to the depth of its sides, especially Capa. Williams brushed the tie twice: Cillessen repelled the first shot and the Bilbao sent the goalkeeper's rebound to the post. The Dutchman, substitute on Wednesday, claimed ownership throughout the game, as did Simon, outstanding on the occasions Valencia had in the backlash in the second half.
Gradually, the whole of Celades was slowing the momentum of an Athletic that worked more in strokes than with continuity, more for passion than for game. Aduriz entered to overload the rojiblanco attack, but the veteran striker contributed virtually nothing. Valencia ended the game being more 'marcelinesco' than ever, demonstrating that it is better not to touch things when they work, no matter how much someone sitting in an armchair in Singapore thinks otherwise. Athletic failed to score the goal he needed and on top saw how Yuri was injured in the shoulder without the possibility of replacing him. A bad day for the rojiblancos, in their first defeat in this League.
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