Undiano unravels at Mestalla

Memorable for the wrong reasons

Yesterday’s game at Mestalla was one of those that will live long in the memory. For Barcelona because of the injury to Iniesta, the final result, the last-minute penalty from Messi, who has missed his fair share, against Diego Alves, who has saved more than his fair share. Valencia, meanwhile, will be left with a different taste lingering in their mouths, one dominated by Undiano, who may well have been affected by the Iniesta injury and the wrath of Luis Enrique, and his catastrophic first-half performance that did anything but win over with the home fans and had a major effect on the scoreline. It was one of those afternoons in which a cloud of indignation sweeps down upon a stadium in common agreement and ends up having a say down on the pitch. Ultimately, Barça were the ones who came out of the other side of this disorder victorious.

Iniesta's and Valencia's misfortune

Enzo’s tackle was forceful but he did get the ball; however, in the process he scythed down Iniesta’s standing leg, with grave but hopefully not disastrous consequences. Subsequently, Undiano got  bogged down in all of this as his afternoon went from bad to worse. Unfortunately for Valencia it came at a greater cost, with a goal that shouldn’t have stood, a penalty by Umtiti in limbo and a big red-card let off for Busquets, already on a yellow – and all in the first half. Yet Valencia still managed to turn the game around in ten magnificent minutes, before ultimately coming unstuck in the incidents that followed. In the final exchanges it was the home side that took the battering.

Elsehwere at the top of LaLiga and the Real Madrid AGM

It was an action-packed encounter and those three points crank up the pressure on Atlético to come away from Seville with something. The Sevilla fans are yet to be fully convinced by Sampaoli, but the visit of Simeone’s side will be one of those occasions that could bring them together and enable them to leave their suspicions aside for a couple of hours. It will be a full-blooded affair. A more one-sided match is expected in the Bernabéu with Athletic’s makeshift defence. Maybe I’m wrong, but it looks like such a foregone conclusion, akin to the muffled cowbells of Florentino’s AGM (the debate will not be offered live in order to mute the few critics that seep through), in those absolute majorities he is so fond of.