Jefferson Farfan just raised his stock to the next level last night
A virtuoso performance by Peru international Jefferson Farfan literally put La Liga side Valencia to the sword as the struggling Bundesliga side managed to win 4-2 on aggregate against Los Che in the Round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League. Valencia’s inability
to convert their chances last night furthermore proved just how much they miss David Villa.
Before the 2nd leg last night, Schalke had relied heavily on Raul and goalkeeper Manuel Neuer throughout the group stages of the competition but still looked shaky at the back and was over-reliant on their topscorer. Many feared that if one day,
both (Neuer and Raul) had an off-day, this Schalke team would find it hard to cope against European teams.
Last night though, all these fears were evaded as Jefferson Farfan delivered a performance that will definitely raise his stock all over Europe. The South American scored 2 goals and played a major role in the third as Schalke dispatched Valencia 3-1 to
reach the quarterfinals.
Similar questions were asked of Valencia last summer when star striker David Villa left for Barcelona but Los Che scored 15 goals in the group stage. However, their goalscoring form came to an abrupt halt when the defining moment of the competition came
for them. A brilliant header by Ricardo Costa gave them the lead in the 17th minute and later on, Los Che had a lot of great chances to score a crucial 2nd goal but the rest of 73 minutes passed for Valencia without seeing the ball in
the net. Though the Spaniards repeatedly overcame the offside trap, they didn’t exploit an unconvincing Schalke defense.
Valencia really missed the lethal finishing of David Villa last night. Aritz Aduriz did manage to make good runs and many a times the Spaniard had the woeful Schalke defense at his mercy but his first effort was blocked and another was saved brilliantly
by Manuel Neuer. Juan Mata and Tino Costa also had some really good chances but they put their efforts wide from close range.
Valencia desperately needed someone who could fill the void left by Villa. Soldado did that in the group stages but there was no chance of doing that against a Schalke side that was very clinical infront of goal in all honesty. Although Raul wasn’t really
himself last night, it didn’t matter much as Farfan rose to the occasion and delivered on three occassions. No doubting his brilliance, Farfan has been a great servant for Schalke over the past two seasons but many argue that he has never delivered in big
occassions. This time though, the Peruvian was the hero and silenced all critics.
The future is bleak for Schalke at the moment. They are facing a mountain of debt and are definitely not going to feature in next season’s edition of the UEFA Champions League. They deserve all the praise they are getting for knocking out a good Valencia
side but the quarterfinals would surely be way past their level. However, the same can’t be said of Jefferson Farfan. Although he’s no Villa but the Dutchman has proved that he deserves to feature in Europe’s biggest club competition on a regular basis. Valencia
wanted to sign him this January but weren’t able to do it. However, this time Los Che should sign him up as Schalke will definitely look to cash-in on the Dutchman in order to ease the financial burden.