Direct Chronicle
Gattuso’s Legion shattered Sporting’s weak resistance at El Molinón with a formal, powerful and responsible game and reached the quarter-finals of the cup. The debut of the new Rojiblanco coach Miguel Ángel Ramírez was rolled over, who admitted gaps and favored the substitutions from Valencia and conceded a win.
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Mariño, Insúa, Diego Sánchez, José Gragera, Guille Rosas, Pedro Díaz, Zarfino (Cristo González, min. 67), Nacho Martín, Juan Ferney Otero (Campuzano, min. 67), Djurdevic (U. Milovanović, min. 67) and Dani Queipo
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Mamardashvili, Foulquier, Cenk Özkacar, Gayá, Gabriel Paulista, Justin Kluivert (Vazquez Alcalde, min. 75), Yunus Musah (Moriba Kourouma, min. 66), Andre Almeida (Hugo Guillamón, min. 67), Lato (Francisco Martinez, Min. 67), Samuel Lino and Cavani (Hugo Duro, Min. 57)
Gates 0-1 min 10: Cavani. 0-2 mins. 20: Justin Kluivert. 0-3 mins. 38: Cavani. 0-4 mins. 64: Samuel Linen.
referee Jose Luis Munuera Montero
Valencia, a poor student in the league, are vying for the cup, using firstly their status as participants in the Super Cup to avoid the first qualifying rounds and secondly the weakness of their rivals in the round 16 and round of 16 kicks the Gattuso’s ice-cold squad in the regularity tournament delve into the KO of which he is the current runner-up.
Edinson Cavani soon took the spotlight in El Molinón. In the 9th minute he missed a very clear goal chance. Mariño hastily lunged at Insúa, who had his back; The ball hit the centre-back’s foot and ricocheted in the direction of the Uruguayan, who made a strange play. El Matador then leveled the one with the racket before the break with a brace.
A few seconds after his mistake, Cavani punched in after a wall that Kluivert shot with Toni Lato on the edge of the penalty area in a meandering action by the Dutchman. And before he reached the 45th minute, he cut with his right foot and defined with class with his left foot. This time the counter was run by Samu Lino. Cavani, with seven goals, five in the league and the double in Gijon, dispels doubts about his post-World Cup scoring performance.
Justin Kluivert’s goal came between the matador’s two moves. Valencia recovered in front of his penalty area. The ball went to the talented André Almeida, who lifted his head and cleared the pressure from Sporting with a single pass, leaving Kluivert alone in a one-on-one with Diego Mariño after a quick run from midfield. Behind the Dutchman ran Guille Rosas, who was out of breath.
Gattuso had warned in the preview that he had great respect for the game and planted a headline-grabbing XI with his tactical changes he presented in Arabia against Real Madrid: the 1-4-3-3 in the offensive phase and the 1 -4- 4-2 in the defensive phase, with Almeida de Kluivert up and down and Lino near Cavani. Canary Islands coach Miguel Ángel Ramírez made his debut with a beating in Gijón.
The second half started with a referee’s nonsense. Munuera Montero officiated the start of the game while Sporting goalkeeper Diego Mariño and Giovanni Zarfino, one of his midfielders, left the dressing room. He took Valencia out of the center and at that moment someone warned the referee about the numerical inferiority. Munuera paused the game and waited for both players to arrive. Such was Sporting’s confusion in the game that none of the nine footballers on the field noticed that two teammates were missing. The stands took it by splash. With the same performance as in the first part, Valencia swept away the weak Asturian resistance and rounded off the victory.
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