With new signing Cavani watching on, Valencia suffered a narrow 1-0 home defeat to Atletico. There was a lot going on in the first half, then after the change of ends Joker Griezmann stung immediately after his substitution.
The third matchday in Spain was completed at the Mestalla, where Valencia welcomed Atletico Madrid. Also in the stadium was Edinson Cavani, whose signing was announced by the “bats” shortly before the game. The attacker will be officially unveiled on Tuesday and could then make his first appearance against Getafe on Sunday.
The Uruguayan saw a very eventful first period, but one in which no goals were scored – at least none that counted. Morata’s rich pounding in the early stages was disallowed as the attacker was offside (3rd). In the 23rd minute, Valencia were allowed to cheer a little longer over Musah’s beautiful goal, but the VAR intervened. It was a case of Diakhaby being caught in the run-up to Joao Felix’s goal. The Portuguese tunneled his opponent and was then brought down – so the goal was rightly taken back.
Referee Guillermo Cuadra Fernandez was then even forced to overturn a decision before the break. First, he showed Thierry Correia red after a foul on Morata, because he considered the interference as an emergency stop. But the striker put the ball slightly to the left and there was also a defensive man in the middle. Therefore, the referee changed the red card to a yellow card after seeing the pictures. The visitors then almost went into the dressing room with a lead, but Morata failed with his huge chance against home keeper Mamardashvili.
Griezmann is on target straight away
The second period did not have as many critical scenes as the first. Nothing much happened in front of either goal, but there was one decisive scene from Atletico’s point of view: Griezmann, who had been substituted shortly before, scored with his first contact with the ball – it was to be the winning goal in the end (66th). However, the Frenchman was also very lucky that Carlos Soler deflected the ball out of Mamardashvili’s reach. The home side’s keeper could not be blamed on the day anyway, he even prevented a higher defeat against Carrasco (89th) and Griezmann (90th) shortly before the end.
For the Rojiblancos it was the second win in the third match. For Valencia, it was the second defeat.
