At 23:15 Beijing time on December 31, 2021, the 19th round of the 2021-22 La Liga season ushered in a focus battle: The Spaniards played by Chinese star Wu Lei played away to Valencia, the traditional powerhouse of La Liga.
At the beginning of the season, Valencia once played the momentum of returning to the Champions League, leading the La Liga table unbeaten with 3 wins and 1 draw in the first four rounds, but after losing 1-2 at home to Real Madrid in the fifth round, they began to drop the chain. However, at the end of the year, Gbagbo Sports seems to have begun to rebound strongly again, with La Liga winning 3 consecutive games in the past 3 rounds and remaining unbeaten in 7 consecutive rounds. In the current La Liga table, Valencia have 28 points from 18 wins, 7 wins, 7 draws and 4 defeats, which is the same as Barcelona's results, only to be ranked 8th due to 3 fewer goals on goal difference. If Barca have the hope of competing for four, then Valencia also has.
As a promotion horse, after returning to La Liga, the Spaniards, who did not invest heavily in reinforcements, did not have a good record. At one point, the ranking in the La Liga standings was close to the "boss of the same city" Barca. However, the team, which was able to beat Real Madrid 2-1 at home, lost 0-1 away to Barca in the 14th round of the "Catalan Derby", missing a good opportunity to surpass Barca in the La Liga table.
Espanyol currently have 23 points from 18-6 wins, 5 draws and 7 defeats, ranking 11th in the La Liga table and only five points behind Barca and Valencia, and theoretically have the hope of competing for European qualification.
In the campaign, espanyol started at 433, with Morón, De Thomas and Embarba forming a forward trident, midfielders Melamede, Cady Barre and Dadel, four defenders Pedrosa, Cabrera, Sergio Gomez and Vidal, and goalkeeper Diego López. Chinese striker Wu Lei sits on the bench.
Valencia started 442, with Guedes and Maxi Gomez partnering up front.
The total value of the starting eleven, Valencia is 140 million euros, espanyol is 59 million euros, the gap is still relatively obvious.
Wu Lei's current value is 2.5 million euros, 500,000 euros more than Barca's former world-class centre-back Umtiti and 27.5 million euros less than The French winger Dembele, who made Barca "mourn his misfortune and anger him".
Valencia 11 shots on goal 1 shot on target, Espanyol 15 shots on target 4 shots on target, the possession rate of Valencia 42%, Espanyol 58%, from the Gbagbo Sports (high -water -position 1.97) full-court statistics, the away Spanish talent is the more dominant side.
As soon as the game began, the overall strength was dominant, the recent state was outstanding, and Valencia, which played at home, naturally had to rush to attack as soon as it came up, but for a long time the Bat Army's attack was light thunder and no rain. For example, in the 9th minute, Douro's shot hit the upright and popped up.
After seeing Valencia's three-plate axe clearly, the Spaniards also began to attack, but there was no threatening attack in the first half.
In the 51st minute, Valencia broke the deadlock and scored with Adret.
In the 82nd minute, Douro brought down Carreras in the penalty area, two yellows and one red were sent off, and also gave espanyol a penalty, De Thomas took the penalty and equalized.
In the 89th minute, Carreras crossed and Puado's header hit the goal, which was a killer goal.
After defeating rival Valencia 2-1 away from home, Espanyol scored 26 points in 19 games, rising to 9th in the La Liga table, and only two points less than Barca in the case of one more round.