La Liga: Espanyol vs. Valencia

Posted on | February 28, 2008 | No Comments

It would be nice if someone could explain Espanyol’s drop in form, because I am at a loss to understand it. Earlier on in the season they were doing phenomenally well, even to the point of going fourteen league games without a defeat, but since then they have lost six matches from the last seven, dropping eighteen points from the twenty one on offer. Such a change in form can be explain be their injury worries –most notably that of Raul Tamudo who is still out with a broken arm- but not completely. They have allowed some quite clear cut chances slip through their fingers, like the away defeat to Valladolid or the two goals to nil trouncing they received at Deportivo’s Riazor stadium last weekend. If they lose this match to Valencia it will be the fourth home loss on a row, having previously succumbed to Sevilla, Recreativo de Huelva and Betis.
For their part Ronald Koeman’s Valencia finally seems to have turned a corner. On Wednesday night they traveled to Barcelona’s Nou Camp stadium to face the Catalan side in the first leg of the King’s cup and did a lot better than anyone expected. David Villa scored in the seventieth minute and only an invalid Barcelona goal which the referee didn’t see in stoppage time denied them victory. They still have the second leg to play at Mestalla though, and with an away goal in their pocket could still see some silverware this season, and even more importantly, a gateway to the UEFA cup.
The Valencia squad left the Nou Camp quite disgruntled, to say the least. They were even more annoyed when their plane to take them home to Valencia couldn’t take off due to the heavy fog that had appeared. At five o clock in the morning, Ronald Koeman decided to keep the team in a hotel until the weekend, as Espanyol are also Barcelona’s second team in the city. How the players felt about this improvised idea is anyone’s guess, but I am pretty sure they would have rather taken the relatively short journey home to Valencia to be with their families rather than stay in a hotel for four days.
All this might well affect the team and I am going for a draw here. Espanyol can’t keep losing forever and Valencia have drawn their last three matches, so it seems more than possible.
Prediction: Draw (1-1)

Related posts:

1. La Liga: Valencia vs. Deportivo de la Coruña
2. La Liga: Valladolid vs. Valencia
3. La Liga: Valencia vs. Betis
4. La Liga: Atlético Madrid vs. Valencia
5. La Liga: Zaragoza vs. Valencia

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