‘Valencia better against 11!’

Ernesto Valverde believes that Valencia were a better force against Real Madrid last night before the visitors had their sendings off.

Madrid saw Fabio Coentrao dismissed early into the second half, whilst Angel Di Maria was shown a straight red towards the end of the game.

However, for Valverde, these incidents occurred after Los Che’s best passages of play in the game, which ended 1-1 and saw Madrid progress to the Copa del Rey semi-finals.

“We have not been good. Our worst phase in the game was when we were handed the numerical superiority,” lamented the Valencia Coach.

“We could not break through. For me it is bittersweet, because we were better against 11. Against 10 it looked like we had not taken advantage.

“The first half was fairly contested. We also played quite defensively, without giving Real Madrid the counter-attacks, as had been the case at the weekend.

“The fans’ applause at the end despite our being eliminated was comforting.

“Madrid were reduced to 10 for a while and we failed to open up their defence. In addition, they scored a goal in the final minute of the first half and that made everything more complicated.”

It was the final of three consecutive meetings between Valencia and Madrid, between Cup and League commitments.

“Anyway, I believe the League win the other day [0-5 to Madrid] was excessive. It was not reflective of our recent work nor what we have done across the Cup tie.

“In the League they had a few minutes in which they trounced us, but after this game we have the feeling that we can continue the form of previous games.”

Tags Valverde
La Liga - Club News