Match date: 25 January 2015

Two of La Liga’s Champions League hopefuls. Coming into the match, Sevilla stood in fourth, the final Champions League spot, at 39 points while Valencia trailed by one point in fifth.

Valencia have been in good form over the past month and a half, having not lost since November against Barcelona. Their recent run includes a 2-1 win over Real Madrid earlier this month in which Nuno opted to play with three at the back. For this match, however, the Valencia boss chose to play in a 4-4-2 with Negredo and Rodrigo partnered up top.

For Sevilla, Unai Emery said prior to the match that it was one of the biggest matches of the season for his side as they push for the final Champions League spot. He set out Sevilla in a 4-2-3-1.

Valencia Going Forward, Sevilla Midfield Space

In that match against Real Madrid, it was Valencia’s pressing that allowed them to have an advantage over their opponent. Nuno Santo took the risk of playing 3v3 at the back and allowed Real Madrid to try to play long balls up to Bale, Ronaldo, and Benzema, but the captial side had little success. Against Sevilla, however, the most impressive part of Valencia’s play was their quick counter attacks that resulted in two of their three goals and almost a fourth.

When Sevilla had good spells of possession, they committed a number of players forward, but struggled to get the ball into Bacca with Valencia’s back line intercepting well before the ball could reach the Colombian international’s feet. Upon intercepting the ball, Valencia’s made good runs forward and Sevilla midfield, Krychowiak and Iborra in particular, were caught out and left a huge amount of space for Valencia’s midfield to run into. Even when Valencia were a bit slower progressing up the pitch, Sevilla still struggled to get behind the ball quickly as they were stuck between pressing and allowing Valencia possession at the back. Below is a good example of this; the move started with Diego Alves and the build up was slow, but Iborra is struggling to recover.

When Valencia attacked at a quicker pace, Iborra and Krychowiak were unable to track midfield runners as seen in the second and third goal. The second goal saw Valencia break quickly from a Sevilla free kick with Rodrigo carrying the ball into Sevilla’s half and playing a hopeful ball into Andre Gomes. The ball then dropped to Enzo Perez who played a ball over to Parejo, who had made a long run unmarked. Parejo calmly slid the ball beyond Beto. It was another example of Sevilla’s midfielders failing to get behind the ball quickly enough with Ever Banega, Sevilla’s centre attacking midfielder in their 4-2-3-1, the furthest back.

The third Valencia goal was similar. A poor clearance by Beto saw Javi Fuego pick the ball up in midfield, play a quick pass out to Rodrigo, who then found Fuego unmarked at the top of the Sevilla penalty area for the midfielder to place the ball into the corner of Beto’s net.

Valencia’s Midfield

Parejo had an excellent game and had his hand in the first three goals of the game, including conceding the penalty that allowed Bacca to score and bring Sevilla back to within a goal at 2-1. His penalty was well taken as was his second goal, but it was his movement off the ball and movement infield that made him important to Valencia’s cause. He moved around the pitch with freedom, drifting from side to side when Valencia had the ball in order to make himself available to the ball carrier. When Valencia were defending, he moved inside as well to allow Valencia to be able to match up with Banega, Iborra, and Krychowiak.

Perez and Fuego played a big role in the victory as well. Sevilla were able to get some good spells of possession throughout the match, but were unable to really break down Valencia. Perez and Fuego dropped very deep, eliminating the space between the Valencia back four and the midfield, meaning Banega, in particular, was unable to have a telling influence on the match. They also aided in cutting out the supply to Bacca when Sevilla tried to play into the Colombian when they had possession around the Valencia penalty area.

At times, one of Fuego or Perez would drop deeper, forming a back three with Mustafi and Otamendi. This allowed Gaya and Cancelo to get further up the field and forced Deulofeu and Vitolo to drop deeper which helped cut off chances for Sevilla to counter.

Bacca and Deulofeu

The Colombian international is one of the top scorers in La Liga, trailing only Ronaldo, Messi, and Neymar. On the day though, he was far from his best, but a lot of this had to do with Sevilla struggling to get him any service, as well as having his second penalty saved by Diego Alves. Mustafi and Otamendi did an excellent job keeping Bacca from getting the ball. They tightly marked him and intercepted well when Sevilla tried to play the ball into him as mentioned before.

With Bacca unable to provide Sevilla with a consistent outlet, they began to look to Gerard Deulofeu. The Barcelona loan player was bright when he got the ball and put himself in good situations, taking on Gaya in and around the Valencia box on numerous occasions. He also won three free kicks outside of the Valencia penalty area, although they came to very little. Sevilla’s best play going forward was often through Deulofeu, but at times his final ball and decision making as lacking.

Conclusion

Valencia now move into fourth place, two points above Sevilla, and into the last Champions League spot. Sevilla have played one less game at this point, but on the evidence of this match, and on current form, Valencia look more likely to capture the fourth spot in La Liga.

Nuno set up his team well. They put pressure on Sevilla’s midfield, who were stretched, and took advantage of the space that opened up on their quick counter attacks. Emery will disappointed with this fact as the played with two holding midfielders, both of whom struggled to get behind the ball quickly enough throughout the match.

Sevilla play Espanyol and Real Madrid in their next two matches while Valencia face Malaga and Espanyol.