So the buck stopped, Barca could not continue their winning march in La Liga, and should probably feel lucky not having lost the game at the Mestalla. Real Madrid won their game at home against Real Valladolid and have now come up to a point within us. Zlatan and King Henry did not start the game still nursing knocks they picked up on International duty with Swedenand France respectively, leaving the very tired looking Messiah, Iniesta and Pedro to do the work of scoring the goals. However that was never meant to be and Valencia threatned from time to time but were only able to secure a 0-0 draw.

Valencia had a golden opportunity within the first minute as Pablo Hernandez raced through on goal, but he could only fire weakly at Victor Valdes.

Valencia went on to totally dominate the first 30 minutes of the game, putting in a lot of effort all around the pitch but were unable to get on the scoresheet. Pablo was causing problems for the visitors’ defence as los Che started well, but Iniesta was also making some endeavouring runs down the left hand side as the champions looked to settle into their rhythm. Los Che continued to press forward as the half drew to a close, but were unable to test Valdes as the first period ended goalless.

We did start the second half the brighter side with Messi getting in a short at the target with a volley. The game was beginning to open up as both sides looked for the opening goal, and Messi tested Cesar with a powerful drive from distance. Pedro should have put the visitors in front in the 65th minute when he received Xavi’s cut-back in the penalty area, but a host of defenders managed to deflect the shot behind.

The game took a heated turn when David Silva tried taking a quick free kick even though Dani Alves was down on the ground with an injury. This led to a minor scuffle between the players and certainly raised the temperature in the Mestalla. Pep tried to revitalise the side by bringing in Bojan and Busquests but to no heed.

As injury time drew near, Cesar almost gifted Barcelona a goal when he spilled Yaya Toure’s shot, but he grabbed onto the shot as it spun towards his goal. It was the closest the visitors got to a goal in the closing stages, but they closed out a goalless draw with a Valencia side who will rue their missed chances.