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MOTD- Valencia 5-0 FC Basel

By on April 10, 2014

If there has ever been a case of a team providing their own downfall, it was tonight as Valencia hosted FC Basel for the second leg of their Europa League quarterfinal tie.  Basel had won the first leg 3-0, so all they needed to do progress to the semifinals of the competition was hold Valencia to less than four goals, or, in a worst case scenario, win on penalties following a 3-0 defeat.  But Basel proved things could get a lot worse than that.  After a wretched display from the visitors in Valencia in regulation time, Basel went into extra time losing 3-0, but after being reduced to nine men with two reckless challenges which they were rewarded for with two sending offs, they let slip an of an almost sure aggregate win.

Murat Yakin’s side held on to their 3-0 aggregate lead for the first thirty-eight minutes, which had been largely possession based and slow, yet it all fell apart when Joao Pereira chipped a wonderful through ball into the run of Paco Alcacer down the left side of the Basel box.  Alcacer brought the ball down with his chest, before slamming a six yard volley past Basel goalkeeper Yann Sommer at his near post.  Valencia had gotten the comeback ball rolling.  Suddenly they came alive, and so nearly doubled their lead forty-one minutes in as Juan Bernat flicked Sofiane Feghouli’s low cross from the right towards the far post, where Eduardo Vargas met the cross with a diving header from point-black range.  Sommer somehow managed to kick the header out, only for Vargas to glance the following corner into the back of the net.

Valencia continued to push forward as the match moved into the second half, with Sommer only just parrying Vargas’ ten yard effort away.  Daniel Parejo and Alcacer both tired their luck from the edge of the box soon after, until Valencia finally found their third goal seventy minutes in.  Vargas brought down a long ball down the left side of the box for Alcacer, who sliced a sweet half-volley into the top left corner first time from the edge of the box.  All the home side needed to win the match was one more goal, but Basel held on to force the match into extra-time.  But then Basel began to stab themselves with fatal wounds.

First, Marcelo Diaz went in for a reckless challenge on Jonas that earned him his second yellow card, before Gaston Sauro also got himself a second booking, within a minute of his first, five minutes later in the hundred-and-fifth minute.  It was all set up for Valencia to go ahead and grab a late winner, and although the home side waited until awfully late on, and only after Serey Die hit the post for Basel, their tie winning fourth goal finally came in the hundred-and-twelfth minute when Alcacer bundled Pablo Piatti’s low cross from the right in at the near post.   It only took sit more minutes for the Spanish side to put the icing on the cake, with Bernat pouncing on a stray Basel back-pass and tucking it above Sommer into the top right corner.
Man of the Match: Paco Alcacer

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.