Valencia had not beaten Levante in the derby in quite a while until yesterday when they thwarted their rivals by a score of 3-0 in front of a full La Mestalla.
After having a goal called back incorrectly due to the offside rule, Paco Alcacer finally got on the scoreboard in the 17th minute as his blistering header found the far corner of the goal. Valencia did well to continue to pressure Levante whenever the visitors had the ball in order to try to win the ball back quickly and go back on the attack.
A long ball over the top from a central defender, in the 25th minute, nearly found Alcacer, but the young Spanish striker just could not get enough on the ball to put it on target. Four minutes later, Paco and Rodrigo linked up down the left and the latter flashed a shot wide of the far post. Feghouli doubled the hosts lead with ten minutes left to go in the half. The Algerian midfielder outmuscled Tono in the air to redirect the ball, with his head, past Levante’s goal keeper and into the back of the net.
Less than sixty seconds into the second half and Levante nearly cut the lead in half as Lopez struck the cross bar. Cancelo and Feghouli in the second 45 minutes were so impressive. Time and time again they would link up and put on a show for the Valencia faithful creating a buzz around La Mestalla. Diego Alves was finally tested in the 63rd minute through Jose Mari and his laser from outside of the box.
In stoppage time, De Paul found himself in a bit of space at the top of the eighteen yard box and let fly, but the Levante goalie did well to stop the shot. Alvaro Negredo then added Valencia’s third goal deep into stoppage time. He took the ball off his chest and as he was fighting off of a Levante central defender while proceeding to loop the ball over Diego Marino who was completely helpless.