Valencia Cruise On

By: Cesar | May 7th, 2007

No, I didn’t see the game. The madness of my life prevented me from enjoying the late dramatics of Silva’s goal.

But I smiled in glee when the text message hit my phone that we’d won, 2-1.
How nice to know we’re on the road to Europe, sliding gracefully into the Champions League.

Hugo Viana opened the scoring for our boys in the 39th minute with a superb volley, while David Silva grabbed the winner after Sebastian Taborda had pulled Deportivo level.

So who’s next?
Old friend, old Pibe Pablo Aimar. More on him later …

But for now, I enjoy the little I can take from this match. I didn’t see it, I’ve hardly had the time to read anything about it. All I know is that we’re in the driver’s seat, our destiny belongs to us.

And isn’t that a good place to be?

A win at the expense of Aimar’s Zaragoza at the Mestalla this weekend will go a long way towards ensuring qualification for next season’s Champions League.

With Barcelona’s boring victory (hey, that’s what MARCA said … and you know they never lie) over Real Sociedad, we lie 6 points behind, with 5 left to play.

So forget about the title. 2nd place anyone?

*****
In my haste to put an update up, I forgot the compelling story of old friend Miroslav Djukic’s (pictured above) penalty miss against Valencia when he played for Deportivo in the early ’90’s. To quote reader Abraxas:

‘No, the rivalry between Depor and Valencia began on last game of the 93-94, on the very last minute, with “Djukic’s Penalty”. Deportivo needed the victory against Valencia for winning La Liga. The match was 0-0 when on minute 89 the referee there was a penalty against Valencia. Bebeto, the penalty shooter from Deportivo didn’t took the responsability. It was Djukic the only player that was brave enough to try to score. He didn’t. González, the Valencia goalkeeper, saved the shoot and celebrate it as winning something important (Valencia had nothing to loose or win at that game). It was said that Barcelona, the final winner of that liga, gave a lot of money to the Valencia players for a good result in that game. That was the beginning of their hate to us.’

Interesting story … anyone have more on this?