Updated at 21.02
VALENCIA CRANK UP the pressure on Manchester United in Champions League Group H by beating Young Boys 3-1 on Wednesday as the Spanish side registered their first home win of the season.
Carlos Soler, the talented 21-year-old, teed up two Santi Mina strikes in the first half before finding the net himself to seal a rare win for a team whose season has so far been ravaged by draws.
Young Boys levelled when Roger Assale drove into the corner but parity lasted only five minutes, as Mina restored Valencia’s lead towards the end of the first half.
Any faint hopes of a Swiss comeback were dashed when Sekou Sanogo was sent off with 13 minutes remaining for a wild challenge on Francis Coquelin.
It was the culmination of a feisty encounter that featured five yellow cards in the first half alone, a record in this year’s tournament.
For Valencia, victory was all-important to their hopes of reaching the Champions League knock-out stage as they move one point above Manchester United, who play Juventus in Turin later on Wednesday.
That trip awaits Valencia next but they will have the advantage of hosting Jose Mourinho’s side at the Mestalla in the final round of the group stage, if they can stay in touch that long.
After clinching fourth place in La Liga last season, victories and goals have both been hard to come by for Valencia this term.
They sit 15th in the league, with eight draws from 11 games, while in Europe, they had managed just one goal from 42 shots coming into this match.
This was the first time they had scored three goals in a game since March.
- Generous Young Boys -
Young Boys, however, were generous in defence, while Soler and Mina showed the sort of ruthlessness up front that has been so lacking in recent weeks.
The first goal came after 14 minutes as the lively Rodrigo Moreno picked out Soler’s darting run in behind. Soler did brilliantly to chip the goalkeeper but there was a hint of fortune in the ball rebounding back off the far post and landing perfectly for Mina to bundle home.
Young Boys looked dangerous on the break and Assale missed an excellent chance before taking a far more difficult one in the 37th minute. He rolled his studs over the ball before drilling it through the legs of Gabriel Paulista and into the far corner.
Valencia quickly restored their advantage. Soler’s first-time cross caught the Young Boys defence by surprise and Mina poked into the net on the stretch.
The visitors should have pulled level again but Moumi Ngamaleu sidefooted high when free at the back post and Valencia made them pay after the interval.
Soler skipped free after a neat one-two with Rodrigo and with no challenge, drove into the box, before unleashing a shot into the corner.
Valencia were home and dry but Sanogo made sure with a rash tackle on Coquelin that was high and mistimed. Coquelin was eventually able to continue as Valencia held on to boost their hopes of reaching the last 16.
In the other early kick-off, Roma inched closer to a place in the knockout stages of the Champions League thanks to a hard-fought 2-1 win over 10-man CSKA Moscow in the Luzhniki Stadium.
An early Kostas Manolas header and Lorenzo Pellegrini’s neat finish just before the hour mark gave Roma a win that puts them three points clear of second-placed Real Madrid at the top of Group G ahead of the European champions’ clash with Viktoria Plzen later on Wednesday.
Iceland midfielder Arnor Sigurdsson, meanwhile, was on target for CSKA.
The hosts had their tails up but were reduced to 10 men in the 56th minute Icelandic defender Hordur Magnusson was sent off for his second bookable offence after chopping down lively Roma winger Justin Kluivert.
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Very easy to blame a few mistakes when in truth the individuals and the system were terrible. Ireland don’t have an offload/continuity game yet that’s what we tried from the first ball against the best team in the world. We didn’t help ourselves with poor kicking and cheap turnovers but to not mention the coaches and tactics in this analysis is very short-sighted
@Mark Dooley: players largely to blame for basic errors. Coaching staff have to take blame for selection of non form & rusty players and for lack of variety to our game since our the win v all blacks. It was a chance for them to throw caution to the wind and start the with at the least Beirne, ruddock & larmour.
Good analysis Murray
@Mark Dooley: this excellent analysis clear shows that the team was well set up tactically as we were creating space but basic errors by players meant we failed to take advantage of those opportunities. In fact we turned the ball over and handed advantage to NZ. Once again an Irish team has not turned up for a World Cup. That for me is a mental issue that we need to face up to and overcome. Blaming coaches, injuries etc only avoiding the truth and the real issue. Interesting to hear Schmidt say they started focusing on this QTR final end last year, just before their form went to shit.
@Mark Dooley: Excellent analysis by Murray. I disagree with you blaming the coaches & tactics. Uncharacteristic errors, missed kicks & missed tackles by players cost us dearly plus NZ were ruthlessly clinical imho.
@David Supple: coaches responsible for selecting out of form players based on what they have done in the past. Kearney in particular was a pick to try and not lose a game rather than win one as he offers nothing in attack. All you gave to do is look at the abs selection policy for 15 and it is almost always a try scoring machine and the rawness of the two wings to see what proactive selection looks like.
It will be interesting to see what a defensive coach in Farrell. thinks or does with Stockdale. His instinct is to go for the interception and he bites quite a bite. When it works it’s fantastic but when it doesn’t it’s at least 3 points.
I’m not singling our Stockdale but more how our new coach sees it.
Why in this article and others are teams lauded for being able to catch and pass the ball, these players are playing rugby 5 days a week why do we think catch pass is so special, is it because Ireland are so bad at it? Its been killing Munster for 10 years when will we wake up to the basic skills required????
The muppets in the crowd should have shut up and respected the haka. Those clowns over there are just bandwagon jumpers.
@munsterman: Totally disagree, it should be shown as much respect that it deserves and that is f£¥k all!
@munsterman: stupid comment. Had nothing to do with anything