Hugo Duro and Javi Guerra humiliate Atlético

Valencia clings to irreverence as a way of life. You have nothing to lose. There is no cost in rebelling against a destiny that will strike if it has to. Baraja injected courage into a locker room where hunger has set in thanks to a group of young people who dream, respect the shield and play to give goosebumps. Javi Guerra, Pepelu, Fran Pérez and even Sergi Canós have come to wake up Mestalla from a lethargy of boredom and to raise, with football and a rout from another time, a greyish, almost black future. Atlético understood that by taking a break it is difficult to beat a team that will suffer to stay in the First Division, but it will never give up. Since 2014 they had not left the Avenida de Sweden defeated and this time they took a painful defeat. [Narrative and statistics (3-0)]

Simeone does not stop the disconnections that vulgarize the red and whites. “It's the worst game since I arrived at the club,” he admitted. At Mestalla they didn't understand anything until they went through the locker room. The Valencians uncorked the open-ended match and, before the Atlético players got used to the Mestalla sun, they found themselves a goal down. Valencia does not wait, it cannot do it, and even less so against a rival light years away who penalizes any mistake.. Stripped of the brilliance of yesteryear, the only way to win is to love it a lot and make few mistakes..

And that happened right under the nose of an Atlético team in which Cholo experienced how to survive Carrasco's departure without resorting to Javi Galán and how not to cry for Koke. Sergi Canós escaped from the wing, outwitted Azpilicueta and put in a cross that, touched by Savic, Hugo Duro pushed with his soul. Four minutes that were enough to test which team was hungrier. And this pubescent Valencia has a lot of that.

Patched defense

Its strength is in the impetus of Javi Guerra and Pepelu, who turned Barrios and Lemar into shadows, in the careers of Fran Pérez against a Riquelme who did not work as a winger, in the challenges that, time and again, Canós posed to the veteran Azpilicueta. In attack, Valencia's plan worked and in defense, patched up with another youth player, Mosquera, they did not suffer. Morata wandered and Griezmann was unable to receive an advantage ball. Lost control of the spinal cord, on the edges it did not advance either. Not a shot on goal in 20 minutes. A rejection by Llorente that licked Mamardashvili's post in the 28th minute. The first corner, in the 40th. By then the scoreboard had gained weight.

Oblak's appearances were not enough and Fran Pérez took advantage of a Pepelu robbery against a sleeping Griezmann to, on the run, find Hugo Duro. Coldly, he got rid of Hermoso and tricked Witsel and Savic, unable to stop the Madrid native from scoring his second goal, his twelfth in the First Division and five of them against Oblak.

Lemar's serious injury

Lemar's serious injury made Cholo look for solutions before the break, which he supported by using two fighters, Molina and Correa, to make Valencia tremble. But it was not the afternoon and it became clear when Griezmann, the pure athletic talent, shot into the air from the front. A header from Morata and a shot from Correa that saved Mamardashvili's hand were the red and white's biggest arguments. They didn't have time to grow even with all the artillery on the grass.

The duel was broken by Javi Guerra. His shot put the finishing touch to the humiliation that Atlético couldn't even make up for. Patched up by the efforts, again with homegrown players, Valencia resisted.