Mestalla, overflowing for a ‘life or death’ tie

Elite soccer is a continuous exam. It is a habit to live on the brink of a crisis. What they call a bad streak. Valencia and Athletic are now in that situation in the League and their Cup duel this Thursday at Mestalla is ‘life or death’, another common expression in football jargon. It may sound exaggerated, although there is some of that, especially for the Valencian fans, who flirt with the relegation places. Athletic travels with more poise in the League but has lost its increasingly expensive European place for now. Whoever falls in this tie will suffer a setback that can mark the balance of the entire season. Whoever wins will enter a phase, the semifinals, which generates a tide of illusion among their fans. There are parties that are a crossroads. Ernesto Valverde is clear on the path. “We have another chance to play a final and we want to take it,” he said this Wednesday in Lezama.

“The approach is as if it were a final,” Txingurri stressed. Mestalla, which will receive the rojiblanco team with the stands overflowing, is not a very accessible stadium for Athletic. In fact, there he fell in the Cup semifinal of the last edition. The rojiblanco team, intense in the game although with blind aim, has gotten stuck in the League. He does not receive the award for his hard work. The defeat on Sunday against Real Madrid in San Mamés (0-2) sharpened their drop in results. He lacks success in the auction.

Valverde has the entire squad available, except for Iñigo Martínez, who “has taken steps forward this week.” He squares that phrase when his injury is to his foot. “I would love to have him. We need it one hundred percent. I hope that his discomfort in the sole of the foot will subside, “he confided. As he trusts that De Marcos, with shoulder problems, is one hundred percent.

Also in Valencia they believe that their team has fewer points than their game deserves. Gennaro Gattuso has put together a solidary group, aggressive like him. But he does not detach himself from that defensive fragility that has prevented him in many games from defending the initial advantage. He has added seven of the last 27 points. A victory in nine games. Note nearby the vertigo that comes from looking down. Mestalla is your best supporter. Of the 20 points in the League, there he has added 14. The home field factor plays in his favor, although, as Valverde recalls, its effect is different in the League and in the Cup, where “both teams have to go out to win” .

Valverde foresees an intense clash. «Valencia tries to take the initiative with the ball. We are two teams with defined personalities. The one here (1-0 in San Mamés in the League) was an open game », he recalled. “You have to be patient. Yes but no. Impatience should never dominate you and that means a mess. But with patience you don’t win things, you have to go for them ». And he frowned when talking about the field factor. “It is an important advantage, but it is not a league match. We both played it.” Athletic has rehearsed the penalties. He does it for “the whole season”, although “it has nothing to do” with real fire.