Valencia 4-0 Inter Milan

Valencia ensured that their trip to the US had at least one favourable result as they ran out 4-0 winners over a poor Inter Milan side.

The Spanish side were never really troubled by their opponents from Italy’s Serie A, in a game that started in front of a near-empty MetLife Stadium; this being the first part of a double header in New Jersey. The goals came courtesy of a brace from Jonathan Viera and strikes from Ever Banega and Jonas.

Valencia manager Miroslav Djukic will surely be happy with his team’s performance, for they dominated from start to finish. In contrast, even though this was only a pre-season game, Inter appear to have a lot of work to do if they are to recover from last season’s miserable 9^th place league finish.

Both of the teams had lost their opening match in this International Champions Cup; Inter to Chelsea (0-2), and Valencia to AC Milan (1-2) – and as would be expected, they both made adjustments to their respective starting lineups, with both coaches making four changes.

Valencia established their control over the game very early on; Ever Banega curled a delicious shot from 20 yards into the top corner after jhust 7 minutes. The doubled the lead after 34 minutes, when a corner was only half-cleared, allowing Jonathan Viera to hit a shot that took a slight deflection before going in.

Inter attempted to mount a comeback, with Palacio hitting a shot from just inside the penalty area, but that sailed over the bar.

Despite two changes at half time, Inter seemed unable to stem the Valencia attacks,  and ten minutes into the second period, it was 3-0, as substitute Jonas received a clever pass from Viera before rounding goalkeeper Handanovic and tapping into an empty net.

Valencia had the ball in the net again not long after, only for the linesman’s offside flag to cancel out Joao Pereira’s effort.

Valencia’s romp was complete in the last minute of the match as Viera grabbed his second, tapping in a rebound after Jonas’ effort was well saved by substitute keeper Castellazzi.

It is rarely possible to extrapolate what might happen in a forthcoming season purely based on results in this sort of game, which is fortunate for Inter; performances like this would likely mean that they’d struggle to match last season’s worst finish in 19 years. Valencia, for their part, looked confident and clinical, and they could have a decent season even despite top scorer Roberto Soldado’s likely departure.