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Difficult night ahead for Neville in 'dead rubber' Cup semi-final

Xinhua, February 9, 2016 Adjust font size:

Valencia coach Gary Neville can expect to have to endure one of the most awkward nights of his career when his side entertain FC Barcelona in the return leg of their King's Cup semi-final on Wednesday night.

The 7-0 thrashing suffered in the Camp Nou last week means it would need a miracle of unheard of proportions for Valencia to be able to turn the tie around, making the 90 minutes to be played on the pitch at the Mestalla Stadium all but irrelevant in football terms.

However, Neville and his players will have to endure the abuse of the fans who bother to turn up in the wake of a run of league games which have seen Valencia plummet down the BBVA Primera Liga table.

Sunday's 1-0 defeat away to Betis means Neville has yet to win any of his 9 league games in charge and he is one game away from setting a new club record for the worst run of league form.

He and the players were booed and insulted on their return from Seville on Sunday, just as they were after their defeat in Barcelona a week ago.

With the fans angry at the club, the players and with no faith in the inexperienced coach, the atmosphere from Mestalla will be horrible for all concerned and with the tie all but lost even the consolation of a win against a side they drew 1-1 with in league would be irrelevant as everyone knows the key game for Neville is next weekend' s league match at home to Espanyol.

Meanwhile for Barcelona boss Luis Enrique the game offers him the rare chance to rest players after a start to 2016 which has seen his side play two games a week every week.

Ter Stegen will be in goal, while starts such as Luis Suarez, Leo Messi and Neymar can all expect a rest with Munir and Sandro Ramirez given match time along with others such as Aleix Vidal, Arda Turam, Thomas Vermaelen and former Valencia stopper Jeremy Mathieu.

The second semi-final return leg is played on Thursday and sees Celta Vigo faced with a difficult task of overturning a 4-0 first leg defeat away to Sevilla. If it serves as a reference point, the two sides met in Celta's Balaidos Stadium on Sunday in the league and drew 1-1. Endit