What promised to be a tough match lived up to its reputation, and tiredness from the international break as well as injury worries played their role in the outcome at La Mestalla.
As I suggested during the week, Toure was chosen to anchor the midfield, with Keita playing in the middle and Iniesta playing up front. Zlatan also missed out as I thought would occur, and as I hinted, Pep went for Abidal over Maxwell. Unfortunately however (I believe), Pep chose to deploy Pedro in the middle instead of my favored alternative, Bojan.
I understand the logic behind Pep's decision; Pedro's on a good run of form lately, but I still think Bojan is far more suited to the central role, and indeed is a far better player overall. This was never more evident than when Pedro failed to release the ball early enough on several occasions last night. Furthermore, I think the occasion itself got to the young striker. Perhaps it's time for him to return to the bench and allow Bojan his time to shine whilst Henry is out.
A lot of our players were clearly tired, most notably Messi who didn't look his usual sharp self. Valencia undoubtedly had the best opportunities of the match too, but thankfully we have a top quality defender in Puyol, and a keeper who I believe is highly underrated in Valdes, which combined was enough to deny the home team a vital goal.
In light of the circumstances surrounding the match, a point is still a good result, as we could have easily dropped all three. It's a shame Henry couldn't make it, as he likes scoring against Valencia and is coming off the back of a really solid string of international performances.
None the less, we still sit a point clear at the top, and Real Madrid looked more than fragile on several occasions last night, against a supposedly far weaker opposition. I expect Madrid to drop more points whilst Ronaldo is injured, and I think our 1 point lead will quickly become a 4 point gap.
I'll update sometime during the week on the build-up to the Champions League fixture.
Until then, Visca el Barça i Visca Catalunya.
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