Valencia and Racing Santander stage in-house friendlies before LaLiga meeting at El Sardinero | OneFootball

Valencia and Racing Santander are sharpening up with in-house friendlies before their LaLiga EA Sports meeting at El Sardinero on Sunday 11 October at 21:00, which will mark Javier Aguirre’s official debut as Valencia head coach.

Unable to secure an external opponent, Valencia held an 11-v-11 at Paterna on Friday, with academy players filling in for injured absentees. À Punt Ràdio reported that Aguirre organised the full-pitch run-out to replicate match situations.

Racing ran a similar session at El Sardinero, using first-team players alongside youngsters and Rayo Cantabria players. The club said the workout featured a refereeing team of three and two 45 minute halves.

Valencia’s rehearsal was primarily tactical, with Aguirre setting up in a 4-2-3-1 to limit early upheaval while tightening the press and simplifying transitions around Javi Guerra. El partit de la una said Guerra and Harvey Elliott operated as free creators ahead of the double pivot on opposite sides, with Guido Rodríguez behind Guerra in the bibbed team.

There was encouraging news for Valencia as Diakhaby continued building up with the group and César Tárrega completed much of the session. The team will train on Saturday, rest on Sunday, then resume on Monday at 18:00 to keep preparing the trip to Santander.

For Racing, Jorge Salinas trained after returning from Spain under-20 duty. Pablo García and Zabiri remain away with their national teams, with returns expected next week.

Source: Superdeporte

“Artificial intelligence was used to assist in creating this article based on reporting from the original source quoted.”