UEFA Champions League – Full time report: Bursaspor versus Valencia 4-0
Valencia kicked off their Champions League campaign with a trip to Turkey to face off against the Turkish champions, Bursaspor. Bursaspor, who won the Turkish league in the 2009-2010 season welcomed the Spanish giants in a game that was expected to be full of goals right from the start. Both the teams approached the game in an attacking manner and both of them surprisingly, went with the 4-2-3-1 formation.
Valencia were expected to dominate the match due to their superior experience levels as far as European football is concerned. They are one of the few European sides, who has made it to two consecutive finals of the UEFA Champions League, without actually winning the competition itself. Bursaspor on the other hand, qualified for the Champions League by virtue of their league triumph in the 2009-2010 season. The match against Valencia was their first match ever in the history of the club in the UEFA Champions League tournament.
It was a proud moment for all the fans and the players associated with Bursaspor as the players walked out onto the field. The crowd for the match was really up for it as they made sure that the visitors had a terrible time concentrating due to the levels of noise that were prevalent in the stadium throughout the encounter.
Valencia parted ways in the summer with David Villa and David Silva, thus their focus in the 2010-2011 season has been towards other players in the squad such as Pablo Hernandez and Juan Mata along with Joaquin Sanchez and Vicente. All these players did not start however for the Los Che’s as only Joaquin and Pablo Hernandez were included in the starting line up by the Valencia manager, Unai Emery.
The Spanish club kicked off the encounter more confidently as the Bursaspor players looked overwhelmed by the situation at hand. Using their superior ball retention skills in the middle of the park, Valencia dominated the possession throughout the match and seldom allowed their opponents to string a few passes together. In the 16th minute of the first half, Valencia went ahead with a remarkable strike from their midfielder Tino Costa from around thirty yards out, his bullet of the shot almost ripped the net off as Valencia took a one nil lead at the start.
Right before the first half came to an end, in the 41st minute of the match Aduriz found the back of the net for Valencia following a chaotic free kick which ended up on his head. The free kick was taken by the scorer of the first goal for Valencia, Tino Costa. At the half way mark, Valencia went into the break with a two goal lead.
In the second half of the match, Valencia again imposed themselves quickly with their fast passing and off the ball movement. This type of football which Valencia is quite famous for as too much for Bursaspor as their players looked demoralized at times during the second half. Valencia’s third goal came quite quickly as at the 68th minute mark; Pablo Hernandez capitalized on a mistake in the Bursaspor defence. The talented midfielder converted the chance into a goal despite loosing control of the ball earlier on in the move.
Valencia ripped Bursaspor apart once again in the 75th minute as Roberto Soldado was on the mark after he was played in expertly by none other than Tino Costa, who had a brilliant game for Valencia. Soldado’s goal was the cherry on top of the cake for his team, who had been criticized for their financial matters off the field before the Spanish league season kicked off. Soldado’s goal was also the last goal of the match as Bursaspor’s first outing amongst Europe’s elite was quite an embarrassing one for them. The final score of the match was 4-0 to Valencia.
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