Copa del rey [ Semi-Finals | 1st leg]: Valencia CF Vs FCBarcelona

We've drawn three games in a row in all competitions, hopefully these next two home games will allow us to rekindle our momentum and form.

eelir wrote:This game should have been 2-1 for Valencia, with that stupid action of Pinto. Even though the players were tired (Messi was clearly not fit), and we missed Alves for most of the game, and Xavi, i got the impression we had this hunger i was talking earlier i thought we lost. Anyway this is a good result, as i think Vakencia is alway a problem for us and Emery knows how to counteract Pep.

Really? With all those big chances and the missed penalty? We really lacked that special something due to several obvious reasons, but the biggest and best chances were for Barça and IMO we deserved something like a 2-3 win. If Messi wasn't so impossibly out of form we would've actually pulled that off too, probably even a bigger win. But props to the Valencia players, they played more than decent and fought for every ball.

1-1 good result and we played well considering it was at Mestalla.

Alves shouldn't play as a winger, ever. He is wasted there.

Also, if Alexis is worth 26+11, how much is Cuenca worth considering he is 2 years younger? 30 milion? Rip-off.

But you think that with unfit Messi and a player less we would be better? I am just speculating if Pinto got sent of, and he should have. We are lucky the ref did not see that.

Pinto handballed, but that wasn't automatically a red card as Soldado touched the ball to the right. Many refs would have given a yellow.

Maybe i am too harsh on hime, since i am kind of mad on him for som lapses he made in RM game

1-1 not bad..

=================
~ Guardiola [in the press-conference after Valencia match]:

"I've been told the handball of Pinto is outside of the area. Of course that would have changed the game."

"This was the best game we've played here at Mestalla since I'm coach. Valencia created few chances."

Guardiola

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVpROoh7Feo&feature=youtu.be

Puyol > Zidane :dance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHNDET5GcmM

Messi in bad form, hopefully he gets his head together and get back to his brilliant best soon enough.

You know we struggling when Pep praises us, when we play well he is quick to downplay it and say we can do better. To me, the train to peak it clear as day, Messi looked tired after 25 minutes. Pique at the end looked out of fuel, to me it was obvious.

Puyol should of never started, no play down his side. He improved in the second half, but the first he cost us. Plus the goal was his fault.

I dont get why Alves came on for Sanchez, he cant play as a winger in these kinds of games. Alexis had 2 great chances, but he should never of come off. In case anyone didnt notice, he was the only one in goalscoring positions the whole night. He scored his goal at the start of the second, but was just offside. He got into 3 goalscoring positions because of his movement, Dani Alves and Thiago for the pen were the only others the entire game.

Alexis was poor in finishing, but he got chances which was what clearly was lacking after he came off.

I was very happy to see Alves, but he should of been for Puyol in my opinion.

The Franchise wrote:You know we struggling when Pep praises us, when we play well he is quick to downplay it and say we can do better. To me, the train to peak it clear as day, Messi looked tired after 25 minutes. Pique at the end looked out of fuel, to me it was obvious.

Great you picked up on this. I've also been annoyed at Pep's responses recently. I don't want to criticise him but I'd like him to fire one up our players and get them pumped up rather than this continual praise when we really haven't been very good.

Puyol should of never started, no play down his side. He improved in the second half, but the first he cost us. Plus the goal was his fault.

I dont get why Alves came on for Sanchez, he cant play as a winger in these kinds of games. Alexis had 2 great chances, but he should never of come off. In case anyone didnt notice, he was the only one in goalscoring positions the whole night. He scored his goal at the start of the second, but was just offside. He got into 3 goalscoring positions because of his movement, Dani Alves and Thiago for the pen were the only others the entire game.

Alexis was poor in finishing, but he got chances which was what clearly was lacking after he came off.

I was very happy to see Alves, but he should of been for Puyol in my opinion.

I don't think Puyol should play as a RB anymore, he can't do it. The two showings at RB I can remember this season have been poor and shown that he shouldn't be playing there. I'd much prefer Montoya or Adriano. I'm not sure why Adriano didn't play.

I agree that Sanchez shouldn't have come off.

Cuenca was a bit disappointing too. He's been promoted but I don't know if I can see him exploding.

Team worked hard in previous games
2 hard games vs Madrid then an even harder game vs Villareal (they worked like a horse to win the game)
and after just 3 day this match. its expected that they would be tired as hell

i think messi, pique, puyol should have rested. bring them in second half if needed. not bad result but mistakes happend again and again

Alexis is still recovering from his injury, right? That's the impression I got out of him today.

Messi forgot how to pass during this game. Very disappointing from him, he knows better.

1-1 at Mestalla is not a bad result, considering the team we fielded.

If that were Villa in Alexis' position when Fab fed him through he would've tucked it to the far post. But Villa plays like shhh against his former teams.

I hope you guys are downers cause of the play, not the result.

1-1 at the mestalla makes me ecstatic. As Alfred said, even moreso considering the team that was on.

Play was very very average though. We seemed lazy and didn't seem to be moving as much as typical. Everybody seemed very tired, which I guess is to be expected after a lot of hard games recently.

Both sides had chances and luck (Pinto....pinto you lucky bastard don't do that again), wish we put more of ours away but...meh :/

I miss Villa. I had a feeling he'd be in form by now and he would have put away those chances tonight. Seeing Alexis miss hurt me, but as Dani said, at least he is getting in the positions for that.

Not inspiring play, not play to be very happy about, but I'm very happy with the result.

eelir wrote:

BarcaLearning wrote:Ahh well, a draw is ok I guess....but Im not happy that we were time wasting and actually WANTING to hold on.... I dont like that...

Well, i did not felat it that way. Maybe a little, but anyway you could se we were trying all the time. Maybe it was not working out, but the desire was there.

Messi's penalties worry me!

I think both teams felt a draw would be acceptable...even more so for Barca...maybe both sides did try to win it, but there were no gung ho from both sides attacking... and I felt Barca always have the desire, even among recent critisism...

The Franchise wrote:You know we struggling when Pep praises us, when we play well he is quick to downplay it and say we can do better. To me, the train to peak it clear as day, Messi looked tired after 25 minutes. Pique at the end looked out of fuel, to me it was obvious.

Puyol should of never started, no play down his side. He improved in the second half, but the first he cost us. Plus the goal was his fault.

I dont get why Alves came on for Sanchez, he cant play as a winger in these kinds of games. Alexis had 2 great chances, but he should never of come off. In case anyone didnt notice, he was the only one in goalscoring positions the whole night. He scored his goal at the start of the second, but was just offside. He got into 3 goalscoring positions because of his movement, Dani Alves and Thiago for the pen were the only others the entire game.

Alexis was poor in finishing, but he got chances which was what clearly was lacking after he came off.

I was very happy to see Alves, but he should of been for Puyol in my opinion.

Surely thats harsh on Puyol no? Whenever hes played RB, hes done well, including this game. Hes not natural at it, but he never disappoints. U cant compare with Alves though obviously...but Puyol does his best to get up there too, and id decent...hes invaluable, not to mention the double Zidane turn

I also didnt like the sub, but also I think its Sanchez needed rest, Guardila didnt wanna risk him too long. But once he went off, we were much weaker in attack, and were really just waiting for full time...

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Messi forgot how to pass during this game. Very disappointing from him, he knows better.

Did you watch the game, or is that your way of single out players nowadays?

Diego Alves !!
saved 11 out of 16 penalties in the last 5 seasons/La Liga [70% saves ].
[via jiopsi]

He also saved the only penalty Penaldo missed at Real Madrid. [ note: cristiano scored 23/24 penalties at RealMadrid, 34/38 [89%] in his career at Real and ManUtd.

Messi missed the 7th Penalty in his career at Barca [ Copa 4, Liga 2, CL 1 / he scored one of the 7 missed penalties after the rebound from the GK], Messi Penalties: 20/27 at Barca [74%].

I didn’t manage to watch the game. My buddy tells me we were slightly above mediocre.
I know it is Mestallia but still team seems to be underperforming right now.
3-4-3 doesn’t help either

Actually, we played much better than we did Vs Villareal..
we missed some easy chances [including alexis 1 on 1, messi penalty, alves post...],,

Did anyone notice, that Cuenca's dribbling is improving? he made 2 dribbles through 2/3 valencia players, which remind me of Messi:) he wasn't effective, but he can improve !

BarcaKizz wrote:

Cuenca was a bit disappointing too. He's been promoted but I don't know if I can see him exploding.

Cuenca was disapointing? He was tidy, lost few balls, worked his ass off, and did the best play of the night to assist Alexis who wasted the chance. If someone was dissapointing, that was alexis.

You need to stop the Alexis hate goddamn... Your bias for La Masia players is obvious, we all would prefer to bring up our own youth but there's no point not recognising other talent when they come to us.

Nobody was great last night. Cuenca's a talented dribbler and that little move to put Alexis through was magic, but Alexis' best chance wasn't that one. Otherwise most of the night I can remember Cuenca being in Mathieu's pocket.

BarcaKizz wrote:You need to stop the Alexis hate goddamn... Your bias for La Masia players is obvious, we all would prefer to bring up our own youth but there's no point not recognising other talent when they come to us.

Nobody was great last night. Cuenca's a talented dribbler and that little move to put Alexis through was magic, but Alexis' best chance wasn't that one. Otherwise most of the night I can remember Cuenca being in Mathieu's pocket.

That was definitely Alexis best chance if we don't count the offside one. He was on a one on one with a lot of space from the GK. Perfect position.
Cuenca wasn't in Mathieu's pocket at any time, he barely lost balls. I'm not saying he was superb or anything, but I don't think he dissapointed either, at least not to the extent Alexis disapointed with his missed chances.


4:29 Messi does that, and we would all be fapping with both hands.
7:37 link up with Cesc and Messi and great pass to Thiago for the penalty. (yeah, it's not Messi, it's Cuenca)

BarcaKizz wrote:

The Franchise wrote:You know we struggling when Pep praises us, when we play well he is quick to downplay it and say we can do better. To me, the train to peak it clear as day, Messi looked tired after 25 minutes. Pique at the end looked out of fuel, to me it was obvious.

Great you picked up on this. I've also been annoyed at Pep's responses recently. I don't want to criticise him but I'd like him to fire one up our players and get them pumped up rather than this continual praise when we really haven't been very good.

Puyol should of never started, no play down his side. He improved in the second half, but the first he cost us. Plus the goal was his fault.

I dont get why Alves came on for Sanchez, he cant play as a winger in these kinds of games. Alexis had 2 great chances, but he should never of come off. In case anyone didnt notice, he was the only one in goalscoring positions the whole night. He scored his goal at the start of the second, but was just offside. He got into 3 goalscoring positions because of his movement, Dani Alves and Thiago for the pen were the only others the entire game.

Alexis was poor in finishing, but he got chances which was what clearly was lacking after he came off.

I was very happy to see Alves, but he should of been for Puyol in my opinion.

I don't think Puyol should play as a RB anymore, he can't do it. The two showings at RB I can remember this season have been poor and shown that he shouldn't be playing there. I'd much prefer Montoya or Adriano. I'm not sure why Adriano didn't play.

I agree that Sanchez shouldn't have come off.

Cuenca was a bit disappointing too. He's been promoted but I don't know if I can see him exploding.

I think its just a media thing tbh. Behind closed doors im very sure there is motivation in a different way and getting on players backs if they need it.

Puyol the last 4 or 5 games has made errors, just minor ones but noticable. I felt he over pressed and left a space, if that was Dani Alves people would say he was positionally bad.

And yes, to confirm. I am not unhappy about the result, im not even unhappy with the performance because I know they are tired right now. I just feel it fair to pick out mistakes in both the players and the line up.

Cuenca? He did okay, his dribble and pass for Sanchez was excellent. But he didnt get so many touches or chances to go 1 v 1. I think Puyol down his side plus Valencia's double leftback line up made it difficult for him.

I dont think pointing the finger at any one player, Alexis, Puyol, or even Messi who realistically cost us the game (which he never does even if he doesnt play well) but pointing out one guy doesnt really make sense because everyone on the pitch relies on everyone else an nobody played very well at all.