La Liga: Valencia vs. Real Madrid

Posted on | October 29, 2007 | 1 Comment

Real Madrid go into this match still heading the table after their three one win over Deportivo at the weekend, but the big news in this game will be the fan’s reaction to the sacking of Valencia coach Quique Sanchez Flores. The sacking came just hours after Valencia had lost their league game away to Sevilla by three goals to nil. In today’s world of high stakes football, losing two games on the run is now grounds of losing your job. You have to feel sorry for Quique Sanchez Flores. He hasn’t had an easy time of it in Valencia, where the coaches very seldom have it all their own way. The name now on the thoughts of all the Valencia supporters is a certain Portuguese who has recently been put out of work as well. Whether Jose Mourinho will accept the position knowing Valencia’s bank account and the president’s liking of control is another matter. Most likely they will appoint Valencia’s second team coach for the mean time. Valencia are still in a Champions league place in the league, and have won six of their nine league games –including four away from home which is the best form in the league- and really didn’t need to change coaches at this stage of the season. Something tells me that Valencia have shot themselves in the foot with this decision, but we’ll have to wait and see. Certainly, facing Real Madrid at home (where their form is much worse) is not going to be an easy task for the new coach, whoever is turns out to be. There is a lot of talk in the Spanish sports media about Real Madrid’s poor football, but as coach Bernd Schuster points out, the statistics come first then nice football. They have dropped just five points from a possible twenty seven and are also the league’s top scorers with twenty. Their defense is constantly criticized but remain the best this season with only six games conceded. Mestalla is also a good stadium for Madrid, where you would have to go back to 2003 to find their last defeat. In team news, Schuster expects both Heinze and Diarra to be fit again, but can’t still can’t on Pepe and injured himself in the first game of the season. A win here for Valencia would put them just one point behind Real Madrid, but it really depends on how the fans get behind their team. They have been pretty aggressive towards their team’s players and coach, even booing when Valencia have won games. I’m going for an away win here. Madrid enjoy playing at the Mestalla stadium and are certainly going to go all out to make life for the new Valencia coach difficult. Raul, who has scored six goals in both competitions so far this season, is looking better than he has in years and I can see him scoring again here. Prediction: Away win (1-2)

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