Emery: A Huge Blow For Valencia

Valencia seemed on course to wrap up the Spanish Super Cup after just 45 minutes at the Santiago Bernabéu in the return leg after David Silva opened scoring in the 32nd minute to give them a healthy-looking 4-2 aggregate lead.
Madrid midfielder, Rafa van der Vaart’s sending off five minutes before the interval looked set to have handed the trophy to Los Ché on a silver platter, but Unai Emery’s men were unable to go for the kill as Ruud van Nistelrooy led the home sides’ fightback with a 49th minute penalty.
Despite being subsequently sent off and having only nine men on the pitch, the merengues continued to dominate and looked likelier of the two to score again. In fact, they did so three more times as Valencia capitulated spectacularly.
After the game, Emery described the defeat as a bitter blow for the team ahead of the new league campaign and pointed his finger at their inability to attack the game until the very end.
“We suffered a defeat even though at first the result was in our favour and so was the number of players on the pitch,” he said during the post-match interview.
“But Real Madrid were able to turn things around with the help of the home crowd when they had two players less and we just could not organize ourselves to attack with order.
“I can only congratulate our rivals and now we have to learn from our mistakes and look ahead,” he added.
The former Almería coach then shed some light on his second period game plan that somehow backfired.
“In the second half, we wanted to maintain the same approach: hold on to the ball and attack through our flanks so that we can preserve the result. But in reality, quite the opposite happened.
“It is a blow for all the players and for Valencia. But now, we have to respond quickly to this defeat and stay optimistic as we continue to move forward,” he concluded.