Valencia are keeping up the pace with Barcelona, with a hard earned win over Espanyol in the Catalan capital coming thanks to a brilliant opener by loanee Geoffrey Kondogbia, who set up the 2-0 with a cracking finish.
The French international never lived up to his €31 million price tag at Inter, so a loan move to Valencia didn’t seem that irrational. Meanwhile, Inter are thriving, and so are Valencia, sitting four points behind Barcelona after 12 matches, and surprisingly six points clear of Real Madrid, surprisingly in third.
Valencia are finally looking like the team everyone expects by reputation after some disappointing seasons since Peter Lim took over the club. Sitting at 2nd still doesn’t have many believing they’ll challenge Barcelona for the title throughout the entire season, and neither do many believe they’ll finish above Real Madrid, but they seem to be picking up plenty of points before a possible harsh winter.
Kondogbia’s goal came in the 67th minute, as a Valencia cross didn’t amount to much. The French midfielder picked up the ball and from about 22 meters out curled a terrific shot that was out of reach for Pau Lopez.
The second goal came in the 83rd minute from the legs of Santi Mina.