She looked down at him, tears in her eyes, and he looked up at her, heart racing. He was holding a Valencia shirt in his hands with “Will you marry me?” printed on the back where a player’s name and number should be. They both wore Valencia scarves; orange for him, pink for her. Esther smiled, Jesús got up off his knees and they embraced while 55,000 fans broke into applause. So did the mascot standing next to them, master of this particular ceremony – a 6ft cuddly bat with big ears, bigger wings, great big googly eyes and a Valencia kit. A chant began: “Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” And a message appeared on the scoreboard. “Congratulations,” it said.
It was the first time the scoreboard had flashed up anything; they’d not had much to cheer until then but they cheered this. For the first time since 1997 the market held alongside Mestalla was moved to Saturday so that Valencia could play on Sunday at noon and the place was packed, as it has been for most of the season. But things weren’t been going well and the first hint of frustration was creeping in.
The previous afternoon Sevilla had hammered Córdoba 3-0, moving ahead of Valencia into the final Champions League place, and Valencia’s form had dipped. They won 2-1 at Espanyol last weekend but had been beaten in Málaga the Monday before, prompting Super Deporte to screech “Where are Valencia?” Now they were drawing 0-0 with Getafe at half-time. There was barely a note in the notebook. No chances, no shots, no moments, just two teams in rough formation, a couple of unconvincing arrows, a load of doodles and a single word: “Gayá.” One radio station described it in a single word of their own: “Boring.”
Up in the stands the fans were getting edgy. Jesús was getting even edgier. Just before half-time, a member of staff approached Jesús and Esther and said they had won a shirt and the presentation would be on the pitch. It was the day after Valentine’s Day, a day the cover of Marca had described as Real Madrid’s chance to make the fans fall in love again – which, although they won 2-0, they didn’t do – and Jesús hadn’t given Esther anything. But while proposals are common elsewhere, that’s not the case in Spain, so Esther didn’t suspect anything until the cuddly bat handed Jesús the shirt, he went down on one knee and all around her people started clapping and cheering.
The mood changed, things were looking up. Jesús and Esther were going to get married and maybe things would work out for Valencia too. Back in the stands now, a little embarrassed as the cameras turned their way, they watched as Sofiane Feghouli came on and, while far from sparkling, Valencia stepped up. There was width now and dynamism, Feghouli stretching the pitch on the right, Pablo Piatti and José Luis Gayá opening it out to the left.
In the middle Álvaro Negredo won a penalty, asked to take it and scored in the 70th minute. Then Rodrigo missed a great chance that was almost costly, but Valencia escaped. At the other end Getafe missed a wonderful opportunity in the last minute, Pablo Sarabia somehow failing to score from barely a yard, and so it finished 1-0.
The happy couple were invited on to the radio afterwards. “Thank God Sarabia missed that,” Jesús said, as if a goal then would have ruined the entire day. “Now we have to think about the dates … and about the honeymoon,” his fiancee admitted.
That part, at least, is easy. She was there when Valencia played in the Champions League final in Milan and Paris; he was there when they won the Uefa Cup in Gothenburg. Next autumn they can head back into Europe once more. Because though Valencia started the day pushed out of the Champions League places, they ended it back in them and with their sights set not so much on hanging on to fourth place as maybe even taking third, thanks to a defeat for Villarreal at Rayo Vallecano, where they failed to score for the first time in 29 games, and a defeat for Atlético at Celta Vigo.
This was not the best performance of Valencia’s season. They had a lot of the ball but Getafe’s goalkeeper made just one real save. “We lacked clarity and efficiency,” their manager Nuno Espirito Santo said. “The game was ours, but we did not really have presence in the area. And this is not the first time we have suffered in the final minutes; we need to be cleverer and keep the ball better.”
Those issues are not entirely new, although they have been seen less often at Mestalla. The intensity with which Valencia try to play is hard to apply consistently. Meanwhile the speed and aggressiveness with which they counter-attack, the way that they pressure is impressive against big teams – and Valencia have been one of the most exciting teams to watch in the standout games this season, beating Atletico , Sevilla and Real, and losing to Barcelona only in the last minute. But when sides play deep, effectively crossing their arms and insisting “no, let’s see what you can do,” as Getafe did, it is proving less effective. Of their four losses, three are accounted for by Deportivo, Levante and Málaga.
Valencia have two broad systems; one is a 4-3-3/4-2-3-1, the other involves a five-man midfield which Nuno admits he essentially came up with as a way getting Paco Alcácer and Negredo in the same team. But the top scorer is Dani Parejo, a midfielder. Alcácer is injured and Negredo has not reached his best yet. The penalty was important for him; he revealed afterwards that he asked Parejo to let him take it and he ran off to celebrate it with the club doctor. Negredo has been able to start only 10 times this season, making another five appearances as sub. He has scored just three goals.
And yet those three goals have earned his team seven points – against Almería, Getafe and Granada – and when he is good, Negredo can appear unstoppable. Besides, he is improving. He is one of a dozen new players and although the money raises expectations, they have actually brought a new team together surprisingly quickly: Nuno is a charismatic manager with talented players and the results have been impressive. Ten points off the top is closer than they have been for years; they have the division’s second-best defence and only Barcelona have suffered fewer defeats. Sunday afternoon was their 14th win of the season, more than in the whole of last season. At home they have picked up 31 of 36 points, as many as Atletico, and more than Madrid or Barcelona.
“We want fourth place … and more if we can,” Feghouli said, and there is a reasonable chance too. Unlike Villarreal and Sevilla, Valencia do not have the Europa League; nor, unlike Atlético, do they have the Champions League. This morning they sit two points ahead of Sevilla, six points ahead of Villarreal and, suddenly, only three behind Atlético. Two 2-0 wins, for Celta and Rayo against Atlético and Villarreal, put them there, thanks to goals from Fabián Orellana, Nolito, Gaël Kakuta and Alberto Bueno. Albert Good, in other words. Good? “Perfect” Super Deporte called it. Jesús and Esther couldn’t help but agree. And nor could the bat.
Talking points
• Leo Messi’s 300th league game for Barcelona, his 500th across competitive games and friendlies, ended with Carlos Naval, the club’s matchday delegate, leaving the pitch with the ball under his arm. He was looking after it for Leo after another hat-trick – the 31st of his career, his 23rd in the league. No one has scored more. That was not the only record to fall, however: not only did he become, with Cristiano Ronaldo, the player who has scored the most hat-tricks in league history (and, alongside Telmo Zarra, the most in Spanish football history), he also became the player with the most assists since anyone counted them up, going past Luis Figo’s record. In total, Messi’s stats in the league now read: 300 games, 269 goals, 107 assists; or 419 goals and 162 in 500 games overall.
Ever since that game at Real Sociedad, his performances have been barely believable. He already has more assists and goals than in the whole of last season and, in all competitions, has more goals or assists than anyone in Europe. In the league, he has closed to within two goals of Ronaldo, who was 10 ahead at the start of the year. In total, Messi has scored 26 goals in a month. Asked why he did not take Messi off with the game won, Luis Enrique replied: “Why? The idea is to enjoy him as much as we can.” Not that it was just him: Barcelona’s performances have been incredible in general. They’ve now won 11 in a row, scoring 42 goals. Messi got three on Sunday and Neymar got one as well, taking his season total to 17, but the best of them was a brilliant overhead kick from Luis Suárez.
• Valentine’s Day. “A day to make the fans fall in love,” according to Marca. After the derby defeat and all the ludicrously overblown talk about derby defeats and post-match parties, after the free publicity for Kevin Roldan and the propaganda for others, from president to players, Madrid were back in front of their fans at last. And, some said, it was going to be a plebiscite. Some seemed to want it to be one; others manipulated away. If this was a chance for Madrid to win the fans back, they did not. “We played better than them,” Deportivo manager Víctor Fernández said after his side fell to a 2-0 defeat. That was an exaggeration but Madrid did not play well. And there were indeed whistles. For Carlo Ancelotti, for Ronaldo and for Iker Casillas. In fact, Marca measured the whistles for the club captain at 110.6 decibels: louder, they said, than the cheer that greeted either goal. Which, pretty much any way you look at it, is quite sad.
• A week after putting themselves in the title race Atlético Madrid might just have knocked themselves out of the title race again, slipping seven points behind Real. “I got the line-up wrong and we wasted 45 minutes,” Diego Simeone admitted. Yet it was in the second half when they were beaten. Fabián Orellana and Nolito were superb as Celta, one of the most baffling teams in the league, beat them 2-0. And deservedly so. “We’ll keep competing,” Simeone said. “It’s an achievement to beat the champions like this,” Celta manager Eduardo Berizzo insisted.
• Ekeng Hell. Patrick Ekeng came on for Córdoba … and went off again nine minutes later, picking up a red card as Córdoba fell to the bottom of the table with their fourth defeat in a row.
• Another draw, but at least it was the other way round this time. Almería scored first and Real Sociedad equalised, then Almería scored again only for Real Sociedad to equalise again. “People keep telling me this team is too good to be where it is, but we have to start showing that,” David Moyes said.
• The Villarreal manager Marcelino was not happy. “Why did you leave out players like Vietto, Cheryshev ...” he was asked. “Because I am the manager,” he said. “And I decide.”
Results: Almería 2-2 Real Sociedad, Sevilla 3-0 Córdoba, Real Madrid 2-0 Deportivo, Granada 0-0 Athletic Bilbao, Málaga 0-2 Espanyol, Valencia 1-0 Getafe, Barcelona 5-0 Levante, Rayo Vallecano 2-0 Villarreal, Celta Vigo 2-0 Atlético Madrid. Tonight: Eibar v Elche.
