Spain
La Liga
Sunday 22nd December 2019
Kick Off 18.30. On Time !
Levante Union Deportiva 3 Real Club Celta Vigo 1, attendance 18,653
12’ 0-1
60’ 1-1
70’ 2-1
90’+1, 3-1
@ Estadi Ciutat de Valencia
Calle San Vicente de Paul 44
46019 Valencia
€45 Admission + €2.50 fees, Print at Home Ticket
No Programme.
The Estadi Ciutat de Valencia was opened in 1969, under the name Estadio Antonio Roman, which became Nou Estadi del Llevant in 1972, before taking its current name in 1999. Capacity here is 26,354. The stadium can be reached by way of two different lines on the Valencia Metro system. Estadi del Llevant, on Line 6, is right outside the main stand, whilst getting off at Machado, on Line 3, brings you to the other side of the stadium, but this is a 7 or 8 minute walk.
As with the match last night, tickets had been bought on-line, with €45 being the cheapest available, as we required two seats together, but as with the majority of games I’ve attended in the top divisions in Spain, we arrived to find our seats already occupied, as the Spanish seem incapable of being able to read numbers and letters, despite the section and row clearly being shown in their own language on the ticket. Perhaps they are just lacking in basic education. Anyway, our correct seats were soon vacated! It was nice to see, for the second successive day, that both teams would be playing in their traditional colours, rather than changing for the sake of it, which is something clubs in the Premier League in England could take a lead from!
Levante came into this match 12th in the league table, with Celta Vigo struggling down in 18th place, which is three off the bottom. As with last night, these were two very poor teams. Levante missed two glorious chances in the opening ten minutes, both from headers, the first missed the target altogether, whilst the second hit the crossbar. Both looked impossible to miss. Celta Vigo took the lead after twelve minutes, with their only proper effort of the half, when a corner on the left went right across the six yard box and was swept in at the far post by Aspas. For some reason, it took well over two minutes for VAR to confirm the goal. The rest of the half drifted by with neither team making any inroads and the halftime whistle went with no added time played whatsoever.
Celta Vigo seemed happy with what they had and made no effort to improve on their slender lead as the second half wore on. Levante looked a lot brighter and levelled on the hour mark through Marti, when he followed up a shot that was spilled by the ‘keeper. Ten minutes later, Marti put Levante in front, when a quick throw in saw the ball worked down the left hand side and it was pulled back for him to scuff home his shot from six yards. Celta Vigo never looked capable of turning things round from here, but were always in with a chance while there was only a goal in it, but substitute Borja Mayoral side footed in from close range to make it 3-1 for the hosts in stoppage time, to finally kill the game off. The game was not the greatest ever, but it wasn’t helped by two teams that rolled about and cheated at every opportunity, which is somewhat typical of the style so often seen in Spain. Celta Vigo took the honours as far as yellow cards went, by 6 to 3.
