Valencia extended this Saturday its cup party on Wednesday with a win (3-1) at Mestalla against Granada that after a serious first half fell apart at the start of the second half in which the Valencians cemented their victory.
After a goalless first half, two goals in the first six minutes from Valencia with Carlos Soler as assistant to Gonçalo Guedes and the Uruguayan Maxi Gómez launched the locals and although Granada responded by shortening distances soon, a new goal, now by Soler from a penalty, put the Mestalla team on track for victory.
The revolutionary eleven of Valencia, with eight changes with respect to the Cup match against Athletic, was initially made with a slight territorial domain, but it was Granada that had two chances before the first quarter of an hour to score through Uzini and Milla.
Despite Valencia’s greater possession of the ball, the locals were not able to reach Maximiano’s goal with dangerwhich only saw a Marcos Andrés ball crash in the 18th minute, although the action was invalidated for offside.
As the minutes went by the party did not have a clear dominator in the center of the field but the arrivals followed one another in the two areas but without success in the last pass or in the auction.
The game reached the break with comings and goings in both goals but with a Granada that went from less to more before an imprecise Valencia in attack and insecure in defense.
Valencia opened the second half with more intensity and as a result the three minutes after the match resumed, Gonçalo Guedes opened the scoring with a header after a free-kick from Carlos Soler.
The inaccuracies of the final meters of the premises in the first part were forgotten in a start of the second half in which the second Valencian goal came after six minutes, scored, also with a header, by the Uruguayan Maxi Gómez and again after a center by Soler.
Although Granada seemed he got back into the game early thanks to an own goal by Jaume Domenech After an error by the goalkeeper and Hugo Guillamón in the 55th minute, his joy was short-lived as Carlos Soler made it 3-1 from a penalty five minutes later.
The third goal almost deactivated Robert Moreno’s team, that lost the consistency of the first 45 minutes against a Valencia that now dominates the situation, that looked for the fourth goal and that did not give options to its rival.
The triumph allowed Valencia to chain his second victory in the league, consolidate in the middle zone and be able to think about approaching the European zone, while Granada is touched in its fight to avoid relegation.
Datasheet:
3 – Valencia: Jaume, Foulquier, Comert, Guillamón, Lato (Jesús Vázquez, m.5), Racic, Carlos Soler (Christian Mosquera, m.86), Yunus Musah (Bryan Gil, m.73), Guedes, Marcos André (Helder Costa, m.86) and Maxi Gómez (Hugo Duro, m.73).
1 – Granada: Maximiano, Díaz (Quini, m.78), Germán, Torrente, Neva, Petrovic, Milla (Rochina, m.78), Uzuni, Puertas (Machís, m.64), Montoro (Molina, m.66) and Luis Suárez (Arezo, m.78).
goals: 1-0, m.48: Guedes. 2-0, m.51: Maxi Gómez. 2-1, m.55: Jaue, own goal. 3-1, m.61: Carlos Soler, from a penalty.
Referee: Pizarro Gómez (Madrid Committee). He showed a yellow card to Comert, Yunus and Marcos André, for Valencia and coach Robert Moreno, Rochina, Víctor Díaz and Quini for Granada.
Incidents: LaLiga Santander matchday 27 match played at the Mestalla stadium.
