Almería managed to draw this Monday at the Mestalla against Valencia (2-2) in a match in which they equalized twice the goals of Justin Kluivert and José Luis Gayà con goals from Chumi and Francisco Portilloall in the second part.
Valencia displayed great intensity at the beginning of the game in which they had two great opportunities in the first five minutes that were wasted by Lino, who lost one-on-one with Fernando Martínez after an error in the goalkeeper’s exit, and Cavani, who He sent a low cross from Gayà out.
With high pressing, a combination game and a vertical attack, Valencia made Almería suffer, which was surpassed time and time again with filtered passes of the black and white while, on the few occasions they had the ball, the Almeria tried to advance quickly down the left flank with Akieme, but the Valencian central defenders prevailed.
The visitors’ first pitch came after half an hour of meeting with a distant shot that went wide of Mendesand, after the initial suffering, the visiting team readjusted defensively to leave fewer and fewer spaces for Valencia.
Melero gained ground in the midfield, where he began to be forceful and prevail in individual duels, leading to the best moments for Almería, who in the 44th minute, after a controversial handball from Paulista in the area, wasted a maximum penalty that Ramazani sent to a post.
Three minutes after the match resumed, Kluivert put the locals ahead by heading in a cross from Almeida, but the 1-0 lead was short-lived at Mestalla. Almería went all out in search of an equalizer and, after a corner kick, Chumi rose to overtake Mamardashvili (m.54).
After a few frantic bars for the Valencianistas, who saw how The referee, at the request of VAR, rectified after awarding a penalty in his favor and disallowed Lino’s goal for offside, Gayà was quick to catch the rebound of a kick from Kluivert to put the locals ahead againwho had to wait a few minutes to check the VAR before the goal went up on the scoreboard.
With the goal, the strategy of each team changed. Almería dominated against a Valencia that was waiting and was condemned for a loss at the start and an error in Cenk’s clearance that Portillo took advantage of to tie the game for the second time (m.74).
Almería stalked the local goal more in the last minutesbut the clearest chance was for the Valencians with a header that Castillejo, who was alone, sent off in minute 96.
Datasheet
2 – Valencia: Mamardashvili; Foulquier, Paulista, Cenk, Gayà; Lato (Hugo Duro, m.77), Yunus, Almeida (Ilaix, m.77), Kluivert (Marcos Andrew, m.88); Lino and Cavani (Castillejo, m.88)
2 – Almeria: Fernando Martínez; Mendes (Portillo, d.66), Ely, Chumi, Akieme; Robertone, Samuel Costa, Melero (Eguaras, d.84); Baptistao (Suárez, m.76), El Bilal (Embarba, m.76) and Ramazani (Alex Pozo, m.66)
Goals: 1-0, m.48: Kluivert. 1-1, m.54: Chumi. 2-1, m. 65: Gaya 2-2, m.74: Portillo.
Referee: Gil Manzano (Extremadura Committee). He admonished Cavani and Almeida by the locals and Melero by the visitors
Incidences: Match corresponding to the eighteenth day of LaLiga played at the Mestalla stadium in front of 33,442 spectators. A minute of silence was observed in memory of the Valencian supporter José Tarrazona Estruch, who suffered a heart attack inside the stadium in the previous match and died. Captain Gayà put a bouquet of flowers in the sector where that fan was located.
