The game began to derail Vinicius when the Brazilian was about to enter the area with the ball and Cömert kicked another that had been launched from the stands, and disrupted the play with a pool carom. There began a very long and strange succession of events that took the stopwatch to beyond minute 106, left Valencia practically saved thanks to the first goal as a professional by the young Diego López, and was like the afternoon in which Vinicius was sent off for a slap Hugo Duro hunted by the VAR.
Also like the day the Brazilian wanted to draw a very clear line in the face of racist insults. After Cömert’s billiard trick, the referee signaled a free kick, and as Kroos prepared to shoot, Vinicius spotted someone in the background who was insulting him and began pointing at him, seeking the referee’s assistance. He went to the side of the goal to continue pointing to that person, accompanied by Rüdiger, Lucas Vázquez and Militão. “That, that!” He pointed out. “It was you!” Some Valencia players also came to try to take him away.
But for the Brazilian it had not been another episode, and he already accumulates a good collection: LaLiga has presented a dozen complaints for racist attacks on the Brazilian this season. It was read on his lips that he did not want to continue.
The game was stopped for about ten minutes, until the public address system issued a notice with which the referee wanted to warn of “the possible interruption of the game.” De Burgos Bengoetxea tried to calm the Brazilian down, as did Carlo Ancelotti, who spoke to him several times. He even asked him if he was fit to continue playing.
And followed. In the phase in which Real Madrid had launched the charge with everything to try to deactivate the advantage with which Valencia had reached that point. But the whites ran into a superlative Mamardashvili in moments of maximum tension. The match ended in a brawl in which the VAR found a slap from Vinicius to Hugo Duro who had grabbed the Real Madrid player earlier. The referee expelled the Brazilian, who left the field beside himself, signaling to the stands that they were going to Second. That was about to lead to another brawl on the way to the locker room, which was appeased by the Real Madrid bench staff.
The match was an uncontrolled bonfire, but Valencia was not going to Second Division, after having spent a few weeks in its vicinity. Salvation is not final, but they are very close, and that has been thanks to a group of novices recruited by Baraja in the subsidiary, in the Second RFEF, the fourth echelon of football.
The last Diego López, a 21-year-old Asturian, already a globetrotter who has tried the youth ranks of Sporting, Real Madrid and Barcelona. Although his moment came in the Valencia emergency, with the team on the limit and the fans enraged against the owner. And in a match against Madrid. In that scenario he scored his first goal as a professional, perhaps somewhat decisive for the future of Valencia. He won Mendy’s back in the area, who was starting again after his injury, and has not yet recovered the most refined version of him.
On the afternoon that seemed like the one of Madrid’s new midfield —Tchouameni, Ceballos and Camavinga—, after the Manchester crash, the generational replacement that stood out was the Valencian player, who added López to the young rescue squad. The group is also made up of Javi Guerra, a 20-year-old midfielder from the land with presence, vision, touch and daring. An elegant guy who already collected an indelible moment less than a month ago in Mestalla, when he just entered the field, after minute 90, he scored from outside the area and hunted down a priceless victory against Valladolid (2-1) in a moment of tremendous classificatory anguish.
Against Madrid, he propelled Valencia against the rival’s future average and he himself prowled a goal that only prevented Courtois’s inspiration. The Belgian was once again the Real footballer closest to the best version of him, on an afternoon in which Ancelotti had to call on Modric and Kroos again in the second half. Although not even with those did the whites manage to lift a game in which they lost second place, which Atlético snatched from them. But above all a match in which they despaired of the mistreatment of their flagship player, whom they see unprotected and crushed, at the mercy of uncontrolled sectors of stands throughout Spain.
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