Tomorrow night it’s Valencia in the Europa League Last 32 as we take a break from recent domestic action.
It’s all so different from the last time they visited Celtic Park back in 2001. Both had superior teams back then and genuine big European ambitions. We triumphed 1-0 on the night thanks to Henrik Larsson though lost out on penalties after a 1-1 aggregate draw.
But that was then and this is now.
We all know that we are in fine fettle domestically with seven wins on the trot, 21 goals scored and none conceded since our return to action a mere three and a half weeks ago.
The new signings of Burke and Weah have hit the ground running, giving the team dynamic energy and fresh impetus whilst the likes of McGregor, Christie and Forrest have maintained their excellent form from the first half of the season. That combined with the recent return from injury of the likes of Boyata, Edouard and potentially even Kieran Tierney the squad is looking in fine shape as the quality of the opposition gets ramped up a notch on Thursday evening against La Liga’s Valencia.
So let’s look a little in depth at what we’ll be coming up against, shall we?
Valencia are currently managed by 53-year-old Spaniard Marcelino García Toral or Marcelino for short. He took over in the summer of 2017 having previously been in charge of Villareal for four seasons and four pretty successful ones at that as he led them to promotion followed by three consecutive top-six finishes. In 2015-16 he guided them to fourth spot in the league and a Champion League playoff spot as a result. That same season he also took them to the semi-finals of the Europa League after an incredible twelve game unbeaten run, including nine wins before they came unstuck to Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool at Anfield in the second leg of the semis.
So he has form in the competition. Pretty good form.
Despite all that Toral was incredibly sacked one game into the following season’s campaign after an alleged fallout with the board and was without work for nine months before taking over the reins at Valencia in May 2017.
His first season got off to a stormer with an unbeaten thirteen game league run, including nine wins and they ultimately finished fourth only three points behind third-placed Real Madrid and six behind runners up Atletico Madrid. They also reached the Cop Del Rey semi-finals where they lost to eventual winners Barcelona.
Emboldened by that success and bankrolled by billionaire owner Peter Lim they spent big in last summers transfer window blowing €126 million with talents such as Geoffrey Kondogbia (€25 million), Gonçalo Guedes (€40 million) and Mouctar Diakhaby (€15 million) arriving though with the exception of Kondogbia none of those three has made much of an impact. A reminder that a big transfer fee guarantees nothing.
They also signed Italian right back Cristiano Piccini from Sporting Lisbon for €7 million – a player linked with us throughout last summer – so I guess we’ll get to see tomorrow night what we either did or didn’t miss out on.
Along with that lot plus several others, they took in two big-name loan signings with Chelsea striker Michy Batshuayi and Russia’s World Cup star Denis Cheryshev. Batshuayi’s form was pretty disastrous though and after only netting three times in 23 games his season-long deal was cut short and he was punted back to London. He’s now on loan to Crystal Palace.
This winter they brought in two signings in veteran Argentine central defender Facundo Roncaglia from Celta Vigo on loan and Deportivo Alavés forward Rubén Sobrino as a back-up striker.
On the pitch, it’s been uneven as they have so far failed to recreate the form of last season.
They won only one of their first eleven league matches but have been unbeaten in their last five La Liga appearances and have only lost one of their last nine. In amongst all that lot was a pretty impressive 2-2 draw at the Nou Camp against the all-powerful league leaders Barcelona and they’ve actually only lost four league games all season but to counter that incredibly they’ve only won six as well. It’s been draws galore and thus far Valencia have tied 13 from 23 league matches scoring only 24 in the process with 20 conceded.
Despite that, they still sit eighth in La Liga which is only six points behind Sevilla in fourth spot and another Champions League play-off place.
They’ve also reached the semi-finals of the Copa Del Rey and after a 2-2 away draw at Real Betis they are red hot favourites to reach the final with the home leg still to come.
In Europe, they finished third in a tough Champions League group that included Juventus and Manchester United. They lost in two tight games to the Italians but held Man U to a 0-0 draw at Old Trafford and defeated them 2-1 in the final group match the at the Mestella.
The main players to look out for are the powerful centre back Ezequiel Garay who has over thirty caps for Argentina, long-serving creative midfielder Daniel Parejo who has seven goals in 32 appearances this season, 22-year-old central midfielder Carlos Soler who already has 93 first team appearances, and the attacking trio of French internationalist Kevin Gameiro who has 190 career goals, Spanish internationalist winger Rodrigo and their top marksman the 23-year-old Santi Mina who has 37 goals over the past four seasons eight of which he’s netted this term.
Here’s the good new though…………Rodrigo has been left at home along with regular left-back Jose Gaya, Santi Mina is likely to miss out due to an ankle injury, central defender Gabriel has a thigh problem and is struggling, and new singing Facundo Roncaglia is also unavailable due to a suspension the last time he played in Europe that Valencia only realised yesterday. A shame as if they had played him we’d have gone through on default just like we did against Legia and Sion in the past. The good old pesky paperwork and rules.
On the road, in all cup competitions, they’ve only won once in seven games and three of their only four league defeats have also come on the road at such inauspicious places as Espanyol and Alaves as well as Sporting de Gijón and Getafe in the Copa Del Rey.
Safe to say they are a defensive minded team who struggle for goals but are tough to break down and are far better at home than away. That should bring us all hope.
Our recent record at home in European competition has been impressive with only one loss in our last eight home European ties, six wins and it’s been 15-5 on goal difference.
Last season at this stage we defeated Zenit St.Petersburg 1-0 in the home leg and though it was a fine victory against quality opposition our failure to capitalise on several other good chances that night meant we were really up against it on the road, and with our feeble away record the one goal was never going to be enough. Let’s hope we don’ make the same mistake again.
Hopefully, under the disco lights and with Burke, Forrest and Sinclair driving at them early with pace we can get off to a good start and set the tone otherwise Valencia will undoubtedly turn it into a long and frustrating evening.
It’ll be tough but it’s winnable and it could be a great night. Let’s make it happen Celtic and right the wrong of 2001.
....Always A Tim! 