Valencia and Barcelona finished their match on Sunday to a 1-1 draw at the Mestalla. Second place Valencia hosted the league leaders Barcelona for a clash of the two best teams in La Liga. The match was a tale of two halves, but before we get into certain specifics lets address the horrendous error by the refereeing officials. In minute 30, Lionel Messi shot the ball straight towards Valencia's goalkeeper who fumbled it into the goal. The ball went over the line. That means it was a goal. Yet, the goal was not awarded.
Barcelona dominated the first half. They were the more threatening and aggressive team by far. The Catalan side had around 70% possession in the first half and finished the half with 8 shots. Valencia defended as a unit, but seemed to play like a small club who respected their opponent too much. Barcelona were very frustrated and disappointed going into the half with no goals. Valencia weren't able to leave their own half for the majority of the first 45 minutes which was due to their poor passing. The valencia team had completed less than half of their passing attempts at the end of the first half. However, the second half saw a completely different Valencia side emerge from the dressing room.
The second half was noticeably better for the home team who came out pressing higher lines and attacking Barcelona's goal. Los che threatened on the counter, especially on the left side where Gaya and Guedes had a great combination to score the first counted goal. Semedo had a rough day defending Barcelona's right side. Valencia went up 1-0 and almost could have extended their lead if a penalty was called on Umtiti's tackle on Guedes inside the box. The call wasn't made and play resumed and Barcelona tied the game with a superb pass from Messi to find Jordi Alba on a perfectly timed run to one time it behind the keeper and into the net.
There were whispers going around that Valencia's Owner, Peter Lim, is going to go speak with Paris Saint-Germain on acquiring Goncalo Guedes on a permanent basis. Guedes is a talented young man who has a bright future where ever he plays his football, but Mr. Lim should also travel to Milan to speak to the Internazionale side on getting Geoffrey Kondogbia to stay in Valencia on a permanent basis as well. The Frenchman demonstrated his strength and capability to read the game from the midfield position. Kondogbia prevented Busquets from effectively passing the ball to Iniesta and Paulinho, disrupting Barcelona's midfield game plan. This lead to Busquest having to play deeper, to the point where he seemed to play as a third centerback in between Umtiti and Vermaelen. In addition to disrupting the opponents midfield, Kondogbia also connected passes that lead to quick counter-attacks. This allowed for Dani Parejo to join the forwards high pressing line. Iniesta was eventually subbed off in the second half by Valverde. Kondogbia accomplished a job where most coaches put two players to prevent Barcelona's midfield from cutting them apart with their precision passing. Kondogbia was a joy to watch from a fan's perspective.
Obviously, Kondogbia wasn't on his own as Valencia is a well organized team that demonstrated in the second half to be real title contenders. There is still a lot of games left to play, but Marcelino's side revealed that his young Valencia team isn't undefeated by accident and has no plans on easing up any pressure on the league leaders.
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