Valencia 0 – 3 Swansea

A sintilating European perfromance saw Swansea City beat the Spanish giants of Valencia by three goals to nil, on their patch as well. Yes Valencia are not the giants of former years, but they still have a load of internationally recognised footballers in their ranks and lets not forget that they are former winners of the major European trophys. In short, beating Valencia is a huge scalp, and something we should all take a couple of seconds to digets…..we just beat Valencia by three goals to nil, on their pitch. We, yes Swansea City, beat Valencia…..legendary stuff.

Who performed well? Almost everybody.

Were the goals good? They were excellent, three beautifully taken goals. Jonathan de Guzman has found his proverbial shooting boots once again, and his form since coming on (and excelling) against Liverpool should see him force his way back into the starting line up. We now have a lot of very good central midfielders, so Michael Laudrup has some very interesting selection dilemas to come.

Michu was class, as always. I love the way he seems to stroke the ball into the net, a born goal scorer.

Wilfried Bony, meanwhile, continues to show he’s the man to lead the line on his own. Strong, direct and powerful, plus he contineus to score, and a very nice goal from him too last night.

“Pope Alexander VI, David Ferrer, Pope Callixtus III, King James II of Aragon, Guillen de Castro, nina Bravo, your boys took one hell of a beating”

…. note: tenous reference to classic post-match Norweigan commentary when Norway sprung a surprise victory over England many moons ago

Team for Valencia – my ideal

I’m not so much going to predict the team for Valencia, as suggest what in my opinion would be ideal. Obviously playing one of Spain’s biggest and best teams will be a challenge, but in my opinion a lesser one than Liverpool, and we came through that with flying colours. Also we need to consider resting a few people, as we don’t want to strain the squad too much – to quote the classic sports maxim “its a marathon not a sprint”.

In goal, although I’d prefer Vorm, I like Laudrup’s strategy of spreading the games out, keeping the excellent Tremmel happy. So its got to be Tremmel.

Then in the centre of defence I’d go Chico and Ash, no surprises there, if anythin I might rest Ashley Williams for our next game (Crystal Palace).

At right-back I’d pick the excellent Tiendalli, giving Rangel a breather, but I think Tiendalli is a very very good player so no worries at all about picking him.

Then at left back, for me its got to be Ben Davies, who looked really strong against Liverpool so lets keep him on a run. If we are doing well early on though, i.e. we have a reasonable lead, I’d be looking to give him a breather at some point, only problem is we don’t really have cover what with Taylor out. Maybe someone like ex-Arsenal trainee Jernade Meade, could be put on the bench for cover/experience.

Then in the centre of midfield I’d have Canas (Britton is suspended if I’m not wrong), Shelvey and de Guzman, with Pozuelo and Lamah out wide and Wilfried Bony in the middle. Where’s Michu I hear you scream, well he’s having a well deserved rest, but I’d have him on the bench. This squad is getting so good, its impossible to fit everyone in, and particularly out wide I was keen to give a few other players a crack. Lamah impressed me in our last European game, and I think he should get another chance tonight, particularly as his size and goal-scoring threat offer something different to Dyer and Routledge.

Pozuelo, meanwhile, deserves a full run as he has looked awesome coming off the bench, but against his fellow Spaniards he might be particularly motivated, something we should try to cash in on.

Really looking forward to the game, which I think we will win, but we will have to see as Valencia are no mugs (despite losing 3-1 to Pozuelo/Canas’s old team Betis on the weekend).