Levante 2 Mirandes 2

 I was intrigued to visit Levante as part of the Valencia double header. I had heard that they were known for their well-behaved Ultras which sounded a bit of an oxymoron to me. Anyway, after a day of sightseeing and paella in the town, I made my way after a few beers over to the Ciutat de Valencia stadium. On the way I met some Dutch lads who were a good laugh. We went into the stadium only to find that alcohol isn't for sale in Spanish grounds. Never mind, I'd probably had enough by then!

I was sat near the Dutch lads, but in a different section so we said goodbye. The next problem I had was that my seat didn't seem to exist, but that wasn't a problem as I still managed to find a place to park myself.

The pre-match singing of the club hymn was pretty impressive, but the 2 aliens on the pitch and the lights going off to the music of 'Close Encounters' being played was a bit odd.

The match itself was really entertaining. I wasn't a fan of the referee, who seemed to fall for all of Mirandes' play acting, but didn't give Levante anything. My one criticism of Levante would be that up front they seem to have replaced the hapless Wesley, who is now at Stoke with a carbon copy in Mohammed Bouldini.

The opening 10 minutes saw Bouldini get into positions where he should have been doing better, although almost inevitably it was Mirandes who took the lead when Ilyas Chaira put the visitors ahead on 13 minutes. 

It took another 13 minutes for Levante to find the back of the net through the Georgian, Giorgi Kochorashvili with a well taken goal. The rest of the half was fairly evenly matched, but you felt that Levante had Mirandes for the taking.

I was feeling positive that Levante would do well in the second half, but that optimism was soon dashed when Roger Brugue was sent off for a foul that Reina milked for all it was worth, as he had on every other challenge. 

The sending off seemed to galvanise Levante though and on 62 minutes, 6 minutes after the sending off, Pablo Martinez gave the hosts the lead. Levante tried to push for a third and Mirandes obviously pushed for an equaliser. The rest of the half on a whole was pretty evenly balanced, to be honest. However, in stoppage time Levante seemed to self-destruct instead of keeping control of the ball and getting it up to Bouldini to hold it up in neutral positions, they went too hard for a third and kept losing possession. Their position was made more precarious in the 93rd minute when substitute Sergio Lozano also saw red. However, there was only a minute left so what could really go wrong?

Everything it would appear - Javier Marton scored with virtually the last kick of the game and made sure he taunted the Levante fans behind the goal. For him, it probably is just as well that their moniker of the best behaved Ultras seems correct.

What a game! What an evening out! But what a disappointment at the end!















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