Valencia advances in the Copa del Rey, as when it was proclaimed champion in 2008, with a bad situation in the League and is already a quarterfinalist at the pace of new faces such as Sadiq, insistent until sentencing the duel with 0 – 2 in the 78th minute – after a game with more errors than brilliance – in a score that Fran Carmona opened, with his own goal, when trying to clear Martín Tejón’s center, five minutes into the second half.
With generalized rotations, thinking about La Liga and the race for salvation, Carlos Corberán planned his second Copa del Rey match as coach of Valencia CF. Despite the different names in the starting eleven, such as that of the recently hired Sadiq or Guillamón, at the base of the midfield, the instructions were maintained from the beginning, with high pressure and the intention to progress with the ball played short to gain presence in the midfield as protagonists.
The first clear arrival came six minutes into the game, with a cross from Jesús Vázquez in search of a Sadiq who, if it had not been for the timely arrival of Álex Zalaya below, would have been able to overtake a Valencia convinced of looking for the goal from the beginning.
Despite the intention, Valencia’s defensive fragility seemed to continue without a solution, leaving behind the defense estates used, without success, by the local teammaking the more than 7,000 spectators present in O Couto vibrate. Valencia’s little danger came from the left wing, with the same recipe as Vázquez’s rise in search of Sadiq, unable to place the shot well, completely alone, in a flat position, from the front of the small area.
It didn’t take long for Ourense to take the initiative against a team that transferred its doubts from the league championship to the ‘KO tournament’, seeing how the locals began to accumulate chances and players around the front of their areaeverything, too, explained by the intensity of the blue dresses, as happened in the comeback against Real Valladolid in the round of 32.
Álex Fidalgo began to present his candidacy to be elected as man of the match, managing the local team from production to destructionescorted by constant surveillance of Pepelu, disabling the participation of Martín Tejón.
From the corner kick the frustration of Sadiq, again, finishing a ball between the penalty spot and the edge of the small areadetermined to head the ball when, perhaps, the right thing to do was to do it with the foot so as not to turn Pato Guillén’s performance into a great performance.
-Valencia woke up after passing through the locker room and the ball began to roll, eminently, down the right wing, with constant deliveries from Martín Tejón to the center of the area in the first five minutes that They culminated in a bad clearance by Fran Carmona that became the first goal of the game..
Sadiq’s attacks were beginning to be more precise, thanks to his powerful stride, in a exemplary exercise of refusing to surrender, with a high throw to beat Pato Guillén high but, finally, his shot hit the crossbar.
It seemed like another Valencia than in the first half, too, thanks to a precise Martín Tejón in the distribution in the three-quarter zone of the rival field although, in the general tone of Valencia, Ourense received constant invitations to score, in the hero’s boots against Deportivo and Valladolidcrashing his shot from the right sector of the area into Dimitrievski’s post.
All the local danger passed through Sánchez, giving up balls and gathering rival defenses around him and keeping alive the ‘yes we can’ chanted by the stands from the start of the match. That heat was returned by Ourense with constant danger, which did not stop increasing its presence in the Valencian area, although lacking success.
The redemption
‘The ball pays’. That’s what Sadiq must have thought. –ten months and five days after his last goal, against Granada- by pointing his fingers to the sky after sealing the game. Because the Nigerian’s game is worthy of being taught in grassroots football schools, going from the initial mistake, with erroneous decision-making, to, little by little, greater success and an intention to persist in the attempt worthy of praise. This is how it also reached 0 – 2, in the 78th minute, after a stumbled play, which culminated with a cut in the area and a shot at the long post that silenced the O Couto stands.
