Valencia did it on a cold Thursday night in Stoke, convincingly outplaying their opponents and winning thanks to a fine strike from Mehmet Topal.
“We needed an early goal. We had some good opportunities in the first ten to fifteen minutes and had we got a goal then, it would have given everyone a lift and kept us going. But it did not break for us.
“It was disappointing we did not make the most of our promising start because we knew we would have to be at our best tonight and be a little bit lucky as well if we were to get something to take into the second leg.”
