(0-1) 85' Chicharito
Valencia learned the hard way as they fell to their first defeat of the season. Fail to take your chances in the Champions League and you'll pay the price. After converting pretty much everything that came their way in Turkey against Bursaspor, last night Roberto Soldado was guilty of missing an open goal as Manchester United stole victory in the dying minutes through that little pea, Javier 'Chicharito' Hernandez. It must have been strange for Valencia going into this match. With Man United going through a rough patch and 'Los Che' flying high at the top of La Liga, they were regarded by many as pre-match favourites. And they justified the tag with a performance that offered everything but the finishing touch.
Early on the label of favourites clearly didn't sit comfortably with the Valencia as they showed far too much respect to their opponents, giving them plenty of time and space to stroke the ball around when it would have been far more effective to press and harry a jittery United into mistakes. As mind-numbingly boring as some spells of the match were, the last 15 minutes saw the tie liven up and after the introduction of young guns Federico Macheda and Chicharito, Man United grabbed the all-important winner with a late counter which was dispatched with lethal accuracy by the young Mexican. Classic Man United performance away from home in the CL, but a disappointing finale for Valencia, who on reflection deserved at least a point, a fact lamented by Unai Emery in the post-match press conference. Still, two wins against Glasgow Rangers will get their campaign firmly back on track.
Rubin Kazan 1 - 1 Barcelona
(0-1) 30' Noboa (p), (1-1) 60' Villa (p)
Barcelona made it three Champions League ties out of three without a win against little Rubin Kazan. Teams sometimes feel they only have one way of getting a result against Barca these days, and it's unfortunate that it involves packing ten men behind the ball. Rubin lined up in a 5-4-1 formation with a double defensive pivot and it strangled the life out of Barcelona and the match in general. There was not an inch of space in sight as Iniesta, Villa, Pedro and Xavi struggled to create chances. The two defining moments in the match came courtesy of two clumsy challenges in the box, which lead to penalties converted by Christian Noboa and David Villa. Lionel Messi made a return from injury to spark the match into life, but even the little wizard was unable to find a way through the wall of browny purple. Matches of this nature have to be expected as smaller, inferior teams try to cope against the mighty Catalans, but things will change as we enter into the knock-out stages.
Hernandez looks fantastic, I think Ferguson has really decided to invest in the future with him, and Nani. They both look like very complete players, and I expect great things from them in the future.
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