Summary
With Valencia 1-0 down, Orban sent-off and Eibar being awarded a penalty, the visitors were staring down the barrel of a gun. But then Domenech saved the spot-kick and Valencia were transformed. Negredo came on to good effect, he was instrumental in the equaliser – you have to say that was a good substitution from Gary Neville. But for 70 minutes they were awful: failing to register a shot on target all game: Andre Gomes’ goal was more of a tackle into the net.
This point takes Valencia up to eighth – they are still seven points off the Champions League places. Eibar are also on 21 points, but they remain 10th.
Thanks for reading. See you!
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Full-time: Eibar 1-1 Valencia
Considering how poor Valencia were today, a point is not that bad a result for GNev.
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90+3 min: Can Alcacer snatch all three points for Valencia from the free-kick? No! It was close though, the ball flying just wide of Riesgo’s right-hand post.
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RED CARD FOR RAMIS! Eibar are down to ten men!
Eibar press forward but overcommit, and Valencia hit the home side on the counter-attack. Alcacer is left one-on-one with Ramis, and he simply can’t live with the Spanish striker, who sprints beyond the former Wigan defender, but is brought down right on the edge of the area. That’s a clear red card, Ramis was last man.
90 min: Three minutes added on here. Can Valencia hold on?
89 min: Eibar make their final change and it’s a surprising one: Hajrovic replaces Keko. Keko has been Eibar’s best player.
87 min: That’s a suckerpunch for Eibar: they pour forward looking for the winner. Corner. But Negredo is back there, working hard to clear the ball out of Valencia’s area. He’s made an impression since coming on from the bench.
GOAL! Eibar 1-1 Valencia (André Gomes 85)
This is one of the scrappiest goals you will see all season, but Neville won’t care one little bit. Negredo holds off three defenders and slips Andre Gomes in. The pass is too strong and Junca gets across the front of the Valencia man, but Andre Gomes sticks a boot through the legs of the Eibar left back and somehow, from 12 yards out, tackles the ball into the net. Riesgo slips and is helpless to watch as the ball trickles over the line.
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83 min: How many times has Piatti been kicked this second half? I can count half a dozen times he’s been chopped down. Javi Fuego is not happy and he let’s the referee just what he thinks, and sees yellow for kicking off. He’ll now miss Valencia’s next match at home to Getafe next Saturday. Eibar make a change: Inui on for Berjon.
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80 min: Piatti is brought to the turf, can Valencia conjure a decent set-piece delivery? Nope, Cancelo whacks his cross straight over the bar. That’s his third successive poor free-kick, the other two have failed to beat the first man.
78 min: It’s been a game low on quality to be honest. That has suited Eibar, who make their final change: Baston off, Adrian on.
75 min: Cana shows excellent pace to start and finish an Eibar counter-attack, sprinting clear of Abdennour and forcing Domenech into a smart save. Meanwhile, Negredo is on! Neville is rolling the dice: Barragan, the right-back, is off.
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73 min: Cracks are starting to form in Eibar’s defence. They are visibly nervous out there. Dani Garcia is forced to bring down Cancelo and he picks up a third Eibar yellow card in four minutes.
71 min: Junca is the next Eibar player to go into the book, this time for a handball.
70 min: Valencia appear galvanised by that penalty save. Piatti shows Capa a clean set of heels but is cynically brought down by the Eibar right-back. Yellow card.
68 min: Neville makes a change straight away: Danilo off, Gaya on.
1-0 | 68’ | Change for #VCF. @jose_gaya comes on for Danilo -> ->https://t.co/YNUHVtRGg6 #eibarVCF pic.twitter.com/0aulXX55Qf
— Valencia CF English (@valenciacf_en) December 13, 2015
67 min: A reprieve for Neville and co then, but can they get something from this game? They’re down to 10 men.
PENALTY MISS! Domenech saves the penalty kick by Berjon!
Domenech dives to his left to claw out the shot, and then Baston misses the rebound, which bounced high but really should have been put away, skying his effort over the bar.
100% - Jaume Domènech has saved all two of the penalties that he has faced in La Liga (2/2). Hero.
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) December 13, 2015
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RED CARD! Valencia's Orban is sent off!
63 min: He’s had a shocker all day, and now he’s heading for an early bath! But this is never a red card, simply going shoulder to shoulder with Dani Garcia inside the area. The Eibar man wins the header, and there is contact afterwards, but Orban had his eyes on the ball all the way. There was no swinging arm, no elbow, maybe just a slight clash of heads. The referee sees it differently and awards Eibar a penalty! That is a terrible decision. Valencia are incensed, especially Mustafi, who picks up a yellow card for dissent. Orban berates the fourth official as he marches off.
61 min: Keko again sets down the right, and does well to win himself a corner off Abdennour. He swings another cross in. This time it’s cleared.
23 - Eibar attempted 23 crosses against Valencia (including corners), more than in any other first half of a La Liga game. Blizzard.
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) December 13, 2015
59 min: Eibar seem content to put 10 players behind the ball, and hit Valencia on the counter-attack. The home side are making the pitch look very small at the moment, they are full of running.
56 min: Ramis, the Eibar centre-back (formerly of Wigan), is very nearly charged down by Cancelo. He tries to play it out from the back, but eventually just resorts to hoofing it clear. Probably the right decision. Good pressing by Cancelo.
53 min: Piatti has definitely made a differences since he has come on at half-time. He is linking nicely with Valencia’s midfield three now. Andre Gomes shows some quick feet on the edge and is chopped down by Dani Garcia in a dangerous area, but Alcacer blasts the resulting free-kick into the Eibar wall.
49 min: Negredo is going through his paces on the sidelines. His warm-up area just highlights how small this stadium is: just 5,500 at capacity. Just to put that into perspective: there are only three stadiums (Accrington Stanley, AFC Wimbledon, Fleetwood Town) that are smaller than Eibar’s in England’s professional leagues.
Un total de 5.182 espectadores hoy en Ipurua. Aupa Eibar!!
— SD Eibar (@sdeibar) December 13, 2015
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47 min: Keko goes to work on Orban again, bamboozling the left-back with a step-over. Orban scissor-tackles him down, an awful challenge, right on the edge of Valencia’s penalty box. Yellow card for Orban, he’s picked up where he left off in the first half. In Keko’s pocket. Berjon drives a low cross into the box, but it’s easily cleared.
Peeeeeep! We’re underway again. Valencia have indeed made a change: Piatti is on for De Paul, who picked up that silly yellow card in the first half.
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Half-time advert entertainment: watch Gary and Phil (and a few other famous faces) have a kickabout on the roof of their new hotel.
Half-time: Eibar 1-0 Valencia
That was the last kick of the half. I would expect Neville to make changes at the break. Orban and Danilo in particular have been awful.
#EIBvVCF | DESCANSO | @sdeibar 1-0 @valenciacf (@EnrichSergi) pic.twitter.com/uF7rxqTmQJ
— LaLiga (@LaLiga) December 13, 2015
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GOAL! Eibar 1-0 Valencia (Enrich 45)
Neville will be furious with Orban, his left back. He’s been all at sea all half, and is completely outpaced by Cana, who gets to the byline and rolls the ball across the six-yard box for Enrich to prod it on the slide. He was denied earlier this half in a similar position by that fantastic save by Domenech, but the goalkeeper could do nothing about it this time!
Goooooooooooooooooool del Eibar. GOOOOOOOOOOOOL DE SERGI ENRICH
— SD Eibar (@sdeibar) December 13, 2015
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43 min: Eibar definitely finishing the half the stronger. The hold up play from their front two, Baston and Enrich, has been fantastic. Only some last-ditch defending has kept the score at 0-0.
40 min: Domenech scuffs another clearance straight to a Escalante in midfield. He really doesn’t look the most comfortable on the ball.
38 min: “Rapido, rapido!” shouts Neville.
36 min: Gary Neville is not a happy bunny, shouting and swearing on the touchline. The referee comes across and gives him a telling off. Not sure that Gary understood any of that.
34 min: Valencia are struggling to create any chances, but they have begun to dominate possession. Eibar’s intensity has dropped a little.
32 min: De Paul is awarded a cheap free-kick on the left and as he dusts himself down to take the free-kick, starts berating the referee for not moving the wall back. And so the referee gives De Paul a yellow card. Stupid.
30 min: Eibar have the lowest average passing percentage in La Liga – 39% – but they are dominating the ball in this match. Concerning scenes for Neville.
28 min: Chance for Valencia! Oh, but it’s a terrible pass from Andre Gomes. He initially beat Dan Garcia to the ball and suddenly Valencia were three on two going foward, but Andre Gomes over-hit his through ball to Alcacer and Riesgo is able to come out and collect the ball.
25 min: Everything is coming down the right for Eibar. This time, though, it’s Capa that whips in an early cross. Baston dummies it at the near post, and Enrich is nearly able to reach it, but Barragan gets across to nod it behind.
22 min: Player of the match so far is definitely Keko. He has Orban on toast at present. I’m struggling to comprehend how he thinks this haircut is a good idea, though.
Día de descanso conociendo Burdeos, viviendo de cerca una tragedia que sobrecoge #TodosSomosParis pic.twitter.com/pxJZNIWArX
— Sergio Gontan Keko (@Keko_gontan) November 14, 2015
19 min: Valencia have found absolutely no fluency so far. They are struggling to string any kind of passes together. Occasionally Alcacer latches onto a long ball, but he’s too isolated at present, and Eibar are always able to get numbers behind the ball and break up play.
16 min: Yellow card for Dos Santos, lunging in and catching De Paul late. Ouch. Deserved.
14 min: WHAT. A. SAVE. I am not kidding you, this is a contender for save of the season. Another outstanding cross comes in from the right from Keko, flashing across Valencia’s six-yard box. Valencia’s defenders don’t want to touch it, for fear of scoring an own goal, and Enrich is there at the back post, two yards out, to stab the ball i… no! Domenech somehow reacts and pushes the ball onto the post. Point-blank save! The ball rebounds out and Barragan hoofs it clear. Wow.
Valencia goalkeeper Jaume with a miracle save. Just another day at the office. https://t.co/2aBTDZlUcV
— Michael [Valencia] (@VCF_Nordic) December 13, 2015
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13 min: Outstanding wing play from Keko! The ponytailed winger nutmegs Orban drives to the byline and whips a wonderful cross to the near post. Baston dives in with his head, but Mustafi gets there just before the Eibar man and deflects the ball (with his hand?!) just six inches wide of Valencia’s left-hand post.
Keko es la magia de Ipurúa. Túnel limpio, perfecto. Y centro que a punto estuvo de convertirse en gol. pic.twitter.com/BuXsaHo3fb
— La casa del fútbol (@casadelfutbol) December 13, 2015
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12 min: The last five minutes have been all Eibar. Their intensity is relentless at present. Let’s see how long they can keep this up.
10 min: Domenech has made a very nervy start. He is nearly caught out with a clearance, and just manages to slice his kick away from the onrushing Baston, and then comes flapping for a cross. He gets nowhere near it, but luckily Mustafi heads clear. Domenech has played well of late, against Barcelona and Lyon, but this is still his rookie season with Valencia.
8 min: First glimpse of Nevilla on the sidelines: he’s rocking a Wenger-esque padded jacket. A surprise that, I expected Neville to be firmly in the suit-wearing manager camp, as he was in the Champions League on Wednesday.
6 min: One touch on the chest, one flick over the shoulder and suddenly Alcacer is away from his marker. He’s a class act, the Spanish international, but Cancelo’s cross is poor.
4 min: Abdennnour sticks an elbow in the back of Enrich. Ouch, that was nasty. Free-kick to Eibar.
2 min: Junca, the Eibar left-back, gallops forward to latch onto an excellent ball down the line. Barragan, formerly of Liverpool, is caught way out of position at right-back and only a covering tackle from Mustafi halts Junca’s path to goal. Eibar win a corner, with the ball breaking to Escalante, but the midfielder’s volley is well blocked by Orban.
Peeeeeep! And we’re off!
The teams are out! Eibar in their home blue and red stripes, Valencia in their white ensemble.
Former Manchester City man Alvaro Negredo is on the bench for Valencia. He made a big-money move in the summer, but was ostracised by former manager Nuno after the striker criticised the tactics of the team. Against Lyon in mid-week, Neville handed him his first appearance in two months and had this to say about Negredo. He’s on the bench again today, but expect him to have more of an influence as the season progresses.
“Alvaro had a great impact in the Premier League, at [Manchester] City he was the perfect striker and I don’t see any reason why he can’t regain that level.”
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Neville doesn’t want anything to do with Manchester United, thank you very much.
Teams
Valencia: Jaume; Barragán, Mustafi, Abdennour, Orban; Fuego, Danilo, André; Cancelo, Alcácer, De Paul.
Subs: Ryan, Ruben Vezo, Santos, Negredo, Piatti, Gaya, Mina
LINE-UP I Here is the confirmed starting XI @GNev2 has chosen for #eibarVCF. Let's go! pic.twitter.com/cAn7bUAFd4
— Valencia CF English (@valenciacf_en) December 13, 2015
Neville has injury problems to contend with: Sofiane Feghouli, Enzo Perez, Antonio Barragan, Diego Alves and Rodrigo are all sidelined. His captain, Dani Parejo, is suspended although both Joao Cancelo and Javi Fuego return from their own respective bans. Javi Fuego is Neville’s stand-in captain for the day.
Eibar: Riesgo, Capa, Dos Santos, Ramis, Juncà, Escalante, Dani García, Borja, Berjón, Enrich, Keko
Subs: Irureta, Pantic, Inui, Arruabarrena, Hajrovic, Luna, Adrian
The absences of Goalkeeper Jaime Jimenez and Eddy Pascual (arguably the team’s most creative player) will hit Eibar hard. They have lost two on the bounce.
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Not really related to today’s game, but worth a watch regardless. Iago Aspas, formerly of Liverpool did this yesterday in La Liga. Celta Vigo beat Espanyol 1-0. Delish.
Why do English people insist on speaking their language with a foreign lilt when they are abroad?
TEAM |@GNev2 analyzes the current situation of #VCF and #EibarVCF -> https://t.co/gv4QvrIbnp https://t.co/dpZzJkInVa
— Valencia CF English (@valenciacf_en) December 12, 2015
Neville is learning Spanish – he has a lesson at 6am every morning – it will be interesting to see how long it takes for him to start using it in press conferences. But he’s doing his best to embed into Spanish culture …
“I’ve had paella every day. On Friday I had one in the centre of Valencia with rabbit! For me, having a paella with rabbit is a bit weird. I’ve eaten octopus too, which is also weird for me but the food is really good.”
Other non-paella news:
“I’ve watched a lot of video. [Eibar have] a typical British stadium and this type of ground is a physical and mental test.
“We have three analysts and we have three coaches. The analysts that were working with me towards Lyon moved onto Eibar [on Tuesday] so we’ve started preparation for that now.
“We’re playing catch-up from that point of view. The amount of preparation that I would do normally would be three or four weeks in advance. I’d be thinking about the games [in January] against Villarreal and Real Madrid right now, but we aren’t. That’s not what we’ve inherited here. I think things are different in Spain.”
Preamble
When Gary Neville delivers his first pre-match team-talk, in about half an hour from now, he will have to do so through the blare of the Alpha factory siren, which loudly sounds out across Eibar 30 minutes before each home game.
The siren was previously used to wake up Eibar’s inhabitants at 7.30am, to let them know it was time to go to work, but after the decline of industry in the town, it has been re-appropriated by the football club. Only 27,000 people live in the entire Basque town – less than half the amount that can fit into Valencia’s Mestalla stadium – which is nestled into the mountains between San Sebastián and Bilbao. It gives you some idea of the size of the place that one siren can be heard all across town. It is a rallying call that symbolises the interdependence between club and fan, and how the sport is deeply linked to the working-class roots of the people.
It is a connection that Neville will desperately try to recreate at Valencia in the coming months. Under their former manager, Nuno Espírito Santo, the divide was rarely wider between the fans and the team. Peter Lim’s billions are yet to make any serious impact on Valencia’s league position.
Eibar currently sit in 10th position in La Liga, one place behind Valencia and level on points with Neville’s new club. Eibar’s budget last season was just £16m – transfers, wages, maintenance – roughly the amount of money that Valencia spent over the summer on their Aymen Abdennour, the centre-back bought from Monaco. The skewed TV revenues in Spain do nothing to help the minnows, and but this season Eibar are thriving, against all the odds.
Neville could have had an easier place to have his first league game in charge. Eibar have lost just two matches at home this season – to Real and Atlético Madrid – and whilst the task will not be as large as Phil faced last weekend against Barcelona (in which they came away with an excellent 1-1 draw), this has the feeling of an upset waiting to happen. Valencia were awful in their 2-0 home defeat to Lyon in mid-week – Neville’s first match in charge which saw them exit the Champions League. The Manchester man will have been busy with his whiteboard since then. Let’s see how much of an impact he has.
Kick off: 3pm GMT, 4pm in Eibar.
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