Spanish Primera Division – Match Preview: Valencia verus Atletico Madrid
Valencia take on Atletico Madrid in what is expected to be a feisty encounter. The match is scheduled to be played at the Mestalla Stadium in the city of Valencia on 22nd of September, 2010. Both the teams have had good
starts to their seasons so far but anything can be expected as the Los Che’s look to maintain their 100 percent win rate on their home stadium in the 2010-2011 La Liga season.
Atletico Madrid have been dealt a massive blow before the encounter as their star Argentinean striker, Sergio Aguero has been ruled out of the match. Aguero got injured in Madrid’s weekend’s match against Barcelona and the striker
has been left out of Atletico’s squad for the match against Valencia. Both the teams are renowned for their fluid attacking football rather than their defensive organization, therefore it is expected that it will be an event filled encounter. Valencia go into
this encounter with a confident approach as they currently occupy the second place in the Spanish League table.
Aguero’s injury will give Valencia further encouragement. Atletico have further problems if one takes into account the fact that their defender, Tomas Ujfalusi is serving his two match ban which was enforced upon him after his malicious
challenge on Lionel Messi in the Madrid-Barcelona derby. Tiago is also set to miss the encounter for Atletico following his right foot injury, therefore Atletico will participate in the match with some of their second string players.
All the pre-match focus has been on Ujfalusi’s tackle on Messi, Atletico Madrid’s manager, Sanchez Flores commented on the challenge in his press conference after the Barcelona match as the Spaniard expressed his hope that common
sense would prevail following Messi’s injury. He said that Tomas had to intention to purposefully injure the current FIFA World Player of the Year. The Madrid manager also said that he hoped that the ban would not be a very long one.
Sanchez was also critical of the Spanish media as he said that there was a lot of debate and hype surrounding the tackle on Messi which is not appropriate. He said that, the same would not be the case if someone else had been at the
end of that challenge that Ujfalusi attempted.
Valencia are presently unbeaten in their last five matches, something that will give their fans hope. In their last Spanish league match against Hercules Alicante, Valencia gathered all three points as they won the match by a score
line of two goals to one. Atletico Madrid on the other hand lost their last league match against Barcelona, by two goals to one at their home stadium. It was a disappointing loss for the Madrid team as they were completely out played by the Catalans. In all
reality, the score line for the Barcelona match could have been a cricket one but Atletico’s goal keeper David De Gea was on superb form as he pulled off fantastic saves from David Villa and Lionel Messi’s shots, time and time again during the match.
Out of the last four matches between the two Spanish sides, three games have ended in a draw while only one was won by Atletico Madrid. However, that win came back on February 28th, 2010. As far as this corresponding fixture
at the Mestalla stadium is concerned, Valencia and Atletico played out two all draw, the last time these teams met at the Mestalla stadium way back in September of 2009.
After David Villa and David Silva both departed from Valencia in the summer transfer window of 2010, the attacking responsibilities at the club have been shifted to the shoulders of Joaquin Sanchez. He will be the man to watch out
for when both the sides face each other whereas from the Atletico side, their prolific striker, Diego Forlan will be out to get his team the win.
It is sure to be a toughly contested encounter but given Valencia’s lack of fitness issues and Aguero’s absence from Atletico’s starting line up, the Los Che’s are favourites to win this won by a margin of perhaps even a singular
goal.
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