Half a season in Spain had seen Valencia CF finish in a fairly distant 4th position in LaLiga and just fall short in the Conference League Final. And manager Trebor Mahtal now had his eye on improvements to close the gap on Spain’s big three.
He began a summer overhaul by bringing in £95m for eight players, including 32-year-old centre back Tidjane Sano to Sociedad for £22m and goalshy striker Pablo Rivas to Aberdeen for £23m, to amass a transfer budget of about £175m. Mahtal’s good start had been achieved without proper full backs, so he made defensive strength his priority. He bought a familiar face for a third time as left back Joaquín Domínguez joined for £14m from his previous club Tigres, along with right back Jason Bettenstaedt for £10.75m from Augsburg and wonderkid centre back Viljar Bekkevik for a club record £45m from his former club Juventus.
Potentially the most exciting addition was striker Antonio Hernández, who joined for £29m from Málaga. Mahtal again took advantage of AC Milan’s financial challenges to bring in Spanish midfielder Abel Párraga for £24m, added promising Argentinian attackers Raúl Morán for £10.5m from Racing and Alexis Munoz for £3.5m from Rosario, and brought in backup defenders Mateusz Krawczyk for £3m from Radomiak and the slightly underwhelming Nelson Twala for £14.5m from Porto, who went out on loan.
The arrival of Hernandez forced Mahtal to move to two up front, with the Spaniard playing deeper than last season’s top scorer Bruno Torres. A few players will need to retrain to drop into deeper midfield roles led by exciting homegrown prospect Francisco Guilló. But he kept the 4-3-3 in his back pocket.
First Full Season In Spain
The bookies boosted Valencia’s title odds to 25/1 and predicted them to finish 4th. Barcelona are 13/8 favourites, closely followed by holders Atlético (15/8) and Real Madrid (11/4).
Mahtal’s first full season in Spain began at home to Celta. The new strike partnership excelled with Torres scoring early on, creating one for Hernandez and finishing off a 3-1 win in injury time. Bekkevik headed the opener on his debut, but Guilló got himself sent off and they struggled to a 1-1 at Las Palmas. Early goals by midfielders Oriol Lobo and veteran captain Iván sent Valencia to a dominant 3-0 win over rivals Villarreal before winger José nicked a 1-1 at Barcelona. That was followed by easily their best performance as Torres scored twice in a 5-1 thrashing of defending champions Atlético, which was marred by Hernandez having his ankle broken by an awful Atlético challenge.
The strong start continued, including a 4-0 win at Cádiz, before a disappointing 2-1 defeat at home to Osasuna. They lost 3-1 at Real but were clearly better than the rest of the league, which was evident Munoz and Domínguez inspired a 2-0 win over 5th-place Bilbao. Indeed, that took Valencia into a new decade sitting pretty in 3rd, well clear of struggling Barcelona and 6 points behind leaders Real.
Tough Champions League Challenge
Valencia entered the Champions League in the third qualifying round. They breezed past Rangers 4-2 on aggregate and just about defeated Viking 2-1. Tough group fixtures followed, including an annoying trip to Barcelona. They began with a 4-2 win at home to Shakhtar led by a Torres brace, before losing 1-0 at Nice and drawing 2-2 at tycoon-backed Slovan Bratislava. Now the games got tricky, getting demolished 6-1 at Napoli and losing to Man City and Barca before a 1-0 final day win over Benfica. But that wasn’t enough to qualify as they finished 25th on goal difference. And cup matters ended prematurely as Valencia breezed through the Copa del Rey, only to draw Atlético in the quarter finals and get dominated in a 3-2 defeat. Atlético went on to reach the final and lost 3-1 to second-tier Betis.
Valencia Pile On The Pressure As The 2050s Begin
The cup struggles allowed Valencia to focus fully on LaLiga. They began the 2050s with a big game at home to 4th-place Sevilla, and a Torres header after an hour secured a 1-0 win. Winger Adam Sullivan scored twice in a 6-1 hammering of Las Palmas before a 3-1 win at rivals Villarreal, part of an eight-game winning streak that lifted Valencia just 2 points behind leaders Real. Their title credentials were tested by entertaining Barca, and they got a great start as Guilló won a penalty that wide playmaker Romain Combes converted. Two tired teams didn’t really get going and, despite a late Barca push, Valencia held on for a huge 1-0 victory that took them 19 points clear of their rivals.
Valencia kept the good times going as Torres scored both at Atlético, who’d been in European action in midweek, but finally dropped points with a draw at home to Rayo. They got back on track with a 2-0 win over Cádiz which, due to Real’s cup commitments, took Valencia top with a 5-point lead having played three games more. Torres notched his 30th goal of the season in a comfortable 3-0 win at Osasuna before the improving Combes scored two, including a thunderbolt of a free kick, and made the other for Guilló in a 3-1 win over Granada. Real lost for the first time since September at Las Palmas. Valencia handed them the momentum with a surprise 2-1 defeat at 19th-place Valladolid, but piled on the pressure by defeating Girona 3-0 hours before Real lost 3-0 at Barca in El Clásico.
The two sides went head-to-head in a potential title decider as Valencia welcomed Real, who crashed out of the Champions League quarter finals 6-0 to Newcastle in midweek, to Nuevo Mestalla in early April. Valencia’s high press worked after 3 minutes as Combes intercepted a stray pass from a goal kick and converted from a narrow angle. Real went down the other end to equalise with their only attack, but Valencia dominated the first half by 17 shots to one and deservedly restored their lead as Guilló’s 30-yarder hit the post and rebounded to Combes to convert an open goal. They failed to kill Real off until injury time, when Guilló’s wonderful lofted pass sent Torres in to smash the ball inside the near post. That huge win moved Valencia 9 points clear of Real, having played three more, and 12 points clear of Atlético, who had four games in hand.
LaLiga Title Race Heats Up
Real and Atlético won their first games in hand but Atlético drew at Sociedad the day before Valencia won 2-0 at bottom-side Levante and Real beat Cádiz 1-0. That kept Valencia 6 points clear going into their final five games, with Real and Atlético having two in hand.
Game 1 – Real Sociedad (9th, home): Valencia maintained the pressure as Hernández got his first goal after seven months out injured to lead a comfortable 4-2 win. The next day, Real suffered a surprise 3-0 defeat at Osasuna and Atlético won 1-0 at home to Bilbao, then in midweek, Atlético drew at Cádiz and Real won 1-0 at Sociedad. That took Valencia 6 points clear of Real and 7 clear of Atlético having played one more.
Game 2 – Athletic Bilbao (7th, away): The first of two tricky away days took Valencia to Bilbao, who blew the title race wide open with a 3-1 win. Real beat Granada 4-0 and Atlético drew 2-2 at Gijón, then the final games in hand saw Real win 2-1 at Zaragoza and Atlético draw 0-0 at Barca, leaving the top two tied on points with three game remaining with Valencia leading by 1 goal – as both teams won 3-1 at home against the other.
Game 3 – Gijón (8th, home): Valencia boosted their goal difference by hammering Gijón 6-0, led by another Torres brace, and Real responded the next day with a 2-1 win at Valladolid.
Game 4 – Sevilla (6th, away): Another tough road game took Valencia to Sevilla on the Friday night, and they struggled to a 1-0 defeat. The next day, Real gave Mahtal a disappointing 66th birthday present by beating Girona 2-1 to move three points clear going into the final weekend.
Game 5 – Zaragoza (9th, home): A thrilling final day saw Valencia entertain Zaragoza while Real went to bottom and relegated Espanyol. Real led by 3 points, but Valencia had a 4 better goal difference so they had to win and hope for a miracle. But that wasn’t forthcoming as Real scored after 13 minutes, raced into a 3-0 lead at the break and won 7-1 so, despite a great effort to win 1-0 with 10 men, Valencia missed out on the title by 3 points.
Valencia finished an impressive season with 87 points after 27 wins, 6 draws and 3 defeats, scoring 88 and conceding a joint-league low of 28. Torres was the league’s top scorer with 26, while Lobo (13) and Sullivan and Combes (12) were the top three assisters. The impressive Combes won young player of the year and Mahtal was honoured as Mánager del Ano.
So Close To Unexpected Spanish Success
Mahtal was delighted with the improvement in his Valencia side, pushing Real all the way after some cup disappointment. Torres led the way with 37 goals in 53 games, while the ever-improving Combes racked up 18 goals and 17 assists in 50 games. Also impressive were Munoz (9 goals and 14 assists), Lobo (8 goals and 15 assists) and Sullivan (6 goals and 14 assists).
Valencia’s army of young talent was recognised as Munoz won NxGn 2050 with Morán in 10th, Krawzcyk 19th, centre back Isaac Onuh 34th and homegrown attacker Yacouba Camara 40th. While the under 19s won their league, scoring a ludicrous 159 goals in 30 games, led by Morán scoring 44! That showed there was plenty of potential coming through the ranks at Valencia, and Mahtal was confident they could push on a level next season.
Could Valencia bounce back from the disappointment of missing out on the LaLiga title? Join us on Monday to find out!
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