Goals from Paco Alcacer and Sofiane Feghouli have given Valencia a 2-0 victory over Kuban Krasnodar in the Europa League this evening.
© AFP
The hosts began brightly, with Artem Fidler flashing a low ball across the face of goal inside the opening two minutes.
Djibril Cisse almost opened the scoring with 18 minutes on the clock but he fired an effort wide after being played through by Artur Tlisov.
Valencia's first chance came midway through the first half when Ricardo Costa met Pablo Piatti's corner, but his header was saved by Kuban goalkeeper Aleksandr Benelov.
Cisse almost gave Kuban the lead a minute before the break, but he could only direct his header narrowly wide of the post.
Five minutes after the restart, Piatti stung the palms of Benelov after cutting in from the left and unleashing a powerful drive at goal.
Piatti was involved again soon after when he picked out Federico Cartabia in the box, but the Argentine's effort was easily gathered by the goalkeeper.
Valencia were gifted their opening goal on 73 minutes by Benelov when the Russian stopper rushed out of his goal in an attempt to intercept a long ball. However he missed the ball, allowing Alcacer the opportunity to tap into an empty net.
Feghouli made it 2-0 with nine minutes remaining when he curled a free kick past Benelov from the edge of the area after Cartabia had been fouled.
Steven Toplis
