Roberto Soldado of Valencia-Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images
The Champions League round of 16 kicks off Tuesday as French stalwarts Paris Saint-Germain fly to Spain to take on Valencia and new manager Ernesto Valverde.
Since the signings of players such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva, and Ezequiel Lavezzi, PSG has been on a tear in both French Ligue 1, where they currently sit 1st, and in the Champions League, where they finished first in a tough Group A.
Hace cuatro temporadas que el Madrid no sabe lo que es perder con el Valencia en condición de visitante y por si fuera poco, ha convertido a Mestalla en el escenario propicio para desatar su furia goleadora, pues en su últimos cuatro asaltos al estadio del conjunto "che", los merengues acumulan 17 goles a favor, lo que le da una media de 4.
Valencia vs Tottenham 2012 Highlights Score 2-0 Jonas Sofiane Feghouli Pre-season Friendly Goals
Video is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter
Valencia vs Tottenham 2012 Highlights Score 2-0 Jonas Sofiane Feghouli Pre-season Friendly Goals
Video is a post from Soccer Blogger.
Valencia's young attacking midfielder, Sergio Canales, share out his believes over his side's
chance to advance into Europa league final despite having a 4-2 deficit against Atletico Madrid in
the first leg.
Canales, who has just returned into action after a long spell on injury, stated that El Che
possessed the talent along with quality to overcome the two goals deficit especially if the
supporters at Mestalla gives their strong support.
Diego's stock plummeted after his underwhelming Juventus stint where he fell out with manager
Ciro Ferrera and headed for an acrimonious exit. The Brazilian did not endeared himself at
Wolfsburg with his temperamental ways and he was loaned out to Atletico.
As we wrote earlier in the week, the Athletic Bilbao-Schalke tie was the only was that was
pretty much wrapped up after the 1st leg, with Athletic's 4-2 win in Germany.
Que maravilloso! Following their victories yesterday, Atletico Madrid, Athletic
Bilbao and Valencia are all through to the Europa League
semi-finals with Sporting Lisbon taking up the final spot.
Jozy Altidore started for AZ and his size and strength was an obvious problem for Valencia, the
third Spanish side on display in the quarter-finals. He was brought down in the box clearly impeded
but Martin Atkinson did not see anything wrong. Valencia however looked far more dangerous and
racked up a number of scoring chances through Roberto Soldado and Antonio Barragan.
Jozy Altidore started for AZ and his size and strength was an obvious problem for Valencia, the
third Spanish side on display in the quarter-finals. He was brought down in the box clearly impeded
but Martin Atkinson did not see anything wrong. Valencia however looked far more dangerous and
racked up a number of scoring chances through Roberto Soldado and Antonio Barragan.
Valencia picked up a rather disappointing results in their last three home games, losing two out
of their latest three, including the latest one on Wednesday against bottom table, Real Zaragoza,
leaving their fans plenty bitterness.
This situation is obviously being acknowledged by El Che's tactician, Unay Emery, but he still
hope that the Mestalla faithful won't be ditching the club because their support remains an
important element for Emery's team.
Barcelona and Lionel Messi's spectacular showing in the Champions League on Wednesday apparently
inspired fellow La Liga sides on their Europa League adventure as once again, all of them picked up
important victories against their opponents.
Atletico Madrid, Athetic Bilbao and Valencia showed their credibility along with focus in the
competition, earning all a well deserved result which could a valuable asset for their upcoming
second leg fixtures.
All three Spanish teams, Atletico Madrid, Valencia and Athletic Bilbao successfully go through
the next round of Europa League after beating their opponents in the second leg on Thursday.
Atletico added their advantage over Lazio with a 1-0 victory, El Che also doubled their
aggregate against Stoke City courtesy of Jonas' strike, while Bilbao earned an important 1-0
victory thanks to Iker Muniain's strike.
21.02.2012 - DÃas difÃciles se viven en Valencia, incluso en el club de Mestalla
donde el surrealismo viene en forma de automóvil. El inverosÃmil accidente de Ever Banega
viene a sumar gotas al vaso que empezaron a llenar (hace unos meses) Ricardo Costa
estrellando su Ferrari contra una valla de la ciudad deportiva y Miguel Brito atropellando
dos ancianas a la salida de una rotinda.
Que dulce! Valencia kept to their promise to the fans last night and
held Barca to a 1-1 draw with a 27th minute screamer from Jonas. Part of the promise was to play
their best and not lose in front of the home fans, so this result is significantly better than a
loss.
Big boost for Valencia after Roberto Soldado has agreed to extended his contract until the
summer of 2017.
Soldado was the joint top-scoring Spaniard in La Liga along with Fernando Llorente last season
as his 17 goals helped guide Valencia to their third consecutive third-placed finish.
"We applauded them (Real Madrid ) when they won, this is just Sport after all. We have been very
respectful with them (Real Madrid ) at all times, even when they won the Spanish League, when they
won the Spanish Cup in Mestalla ... We were very respectful with them. However, I noticed & feel
that it was not the case when we won and they lost.
After Valencia wraps up what they hope is a spot in next year's UEFA Champions League, the
storied Spanish side will head to the United States for a pair of friendlies against MLS teams.Â
Currently in third place in La Liga behind Real Madrid and Barcelona, Valencia will play the
Portland Timbers at Jeld-Wen Field on May 23 followed by being the Houston Dynamo's opponent in the
Dynamo Charities Cup on May 31 at BBVA Compass Stadium.
Goals by Xavi and Cesc lead Barcelona into Copa Final (Photo: AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Goals from Cesc Fabregas and Xavi Hernandez sealed a comfortable 2-0 victory for the
blaugrana, propelling the Catalans to their third Copa del Rey final in four years.
The Basques of Bilbao await in a repeat of 2009's final, a game in which Barcelona came from
behind to defeat los leones 4-1 and claim the King's Cup.
According to Gaizka Mendieta , there is a big possibility that Barca coach Pep Guardiola could
soon be on his way out of the record breaking club. A lot of uncertainty has arisen over
Guardiola's future following his shocking denial on Tuesday that he was close to signing a new
contract.
It doesn't make any sense why Pep would want to leave Barcelona.
Adrian further established his growing reputation with a stunning goal for Atletico Madrid, as the
club secured their place in the Europa League final in Bucharest, running out 5-2 aggregate winners
against La Liga rivals, Valencia.
The striker added a ninth Europa League goal to his tally in this year's competition, helping the
club reach the final, where they will now meet Athletic Bilbao.
Spanish duo Athletic Bilbao and Atletico Madrid will face off in the Europa League final slated
for May 9th after defeating Sporting Lisbon and Valencia respectively in last night's semi
finals.
Bilbao were 4-3 winners over Sporting while Atletico had a 5-2 aggregate win over Valencia.
The Europa League has been very entertaining at times this season, but it is still an overpriced
consolation tournament. And so Valencia have decided to give season ticket holders free entry to
the second leg of their Europa League semifinal against Atletico Madrid in an effort to ensure they
have a full stadium as they trail 4-2 (thanks in part to the lovely Falcao goal above) after the
first leg.
There is no disputing who is the dominant league in Europe this season as Spain has two teams in
the Champions League semi-finals and three teams in the Europa League semi-finals after Valencia,
Athletic Bilbao and Atletico Madrid all advanced to the Europa League semi-finals, with Portuguese
side Sporting joining them in the last four.
The dream of European silverware is still alive for four Americans, whose teams are locked in
UEFA Europa League quarterfinal battles on Thursday.
U.S. national team stalwarts Jozy Altidore, Steve Cherundolo, Jermaine Jones and the injured
Oguchi Onyewu all have their teams a result away from reaching the semifinals of the
competition.
Radamel Falcao continued his stunning form, this season, with two more goals to guide Atletico
Madrid to a 4-2 victory in their Europa League semi-final first-leg against Valencia.
The Columbian striker's brace, along with goals from Miranda and Adrian Lopez, ensured that the
Madrid side would head to the Mestalla for the return leg with a two-goal advantage.
Radamel Falcao continued his stunning form, this season, with two more goals to guide Atletico
Madrid to a 4-2 victory in their Europa League semi-final first-leg against Valencia.
The Columbian striker's brace, along with goals from Miranda and Adrian Lopez, ensured that the
Madrid side would head to the Mestalla for the return leg with a two-goal advantage.
Pick that out the 'met Mehmet Topal'ın muhteşem golü. It's safe to say that Valancia didn't have
the most comfortable of evenings at the Britannia Stadium last night, so you can imagine the
Spanish outfit were pretty pleased when Mehmet Topal stepped forward to deliver this thunderbolt.
The strike gave a precious away goal and [.
Mirandes, the giant killing third division Liga club bowed out beaten by Athletic Bilbao, 6-2,
in the second leg of the Copa Del Rey (8-3 aggregate). Fernando Llorente showed why he's on the
wishlist of some of the world's biggest clubs by scoring a brace. Athletic also got goals from Iker
Muniain, Markel Susaeta and defender Jon Aurtenetxe.
Watch, mere mortals, and weep as the slightly more 'agricultural' 50% of Barcelona's central
defence pulls off not one, but two 360° roulette tricks in a row as he maraudes his way through
Valencia's midfield during last night's Copa del Rey semi-final first leg.
Valencia served a reminder of its proud heritage as a football team holding Barca and then
denied Leo Messi a PK goal in the Copa Del Rey semi-finals first leg.
Jonas gave the home side the lead at the Mestalla but Carles Puyol who seems to have made a
career scoring very important headers equalized for the Blaugrana.
It's been 22 days since Andre Villas-Boas parted ways with
Chelsea and contrary to popular belief, the Portuguese hasn't been directing spies
to Inter Milan's training ground (or more specifically, Ranieri's house). Instead,
Villas-Boas attracted a fair bit of attention in Barcelona last weekend when he attended the
Segunda division match between Barça B and Alcoyano at the Mini Estadi, where
fans spotted him and asked for autographs.
