Valencia. Not one of the big TWO Spanish clubs but a big club none the less, make no mistake, they are a fantastic team and they don’t come much tougher.
About Valencia
Valencia. Not one of the big TWO Spanish clubs but a big club none the less, make no mistake, they are a fantastic team and they don’t come much tougher.
Rangers were drawn in Group C with Valencia along with Manchester United of England, and Bursaspor of Turkey. A tough group indeed.
Valencia have reached the final of the UEFA Champions League twice. It was twice in successive seasons in actual fact but lost out both times. The first was in 2000 where they lost out to Real Madrid in an all Spanish final, then in 2001 they lost out on penalties against Bayern Munich.
They have however won European honours in the past, notably the UEFA Cup three times, Cup Winners Cup once, Super Cup twice and they’ve even won the Intertoto Cup. That’s SEVEN major European honours.
They won the UEFA Cup (known as the Fairs Cup at the time) twice in a row in 1962 and 1963, they were unlucky not to make ir three in a row when they lost in 1964. Their next success came in 1980 when they won the Cup Winners Cup, they followed this up with the Super Cup later that year.
Valencia next won European silverware when they collected the Intertoto Cup in 1998, a trophy awarded for the team that came out of the Intertoto Cup competition and went on the furtherest in the UEFA Cup.
Their last successes were in 2004 when they got their hands on the UEFA Cup followed by their second Super Cup. Their pedigree in European football speaks for itself.
Domestically, they have won La Liga six times, the last time coming in 2004. They have won the Copa Del Rey seven times and the Spanish Super Cup once.
Valencia are no strangers to Scotland either. Before this year’s draw they had been paired with Scottish teams five times. In actual fact they faced Scottish competition three times in the one season in 1962/63’s Fair Cup.
They swept past Celtic in the first round, Dunfermline in the second and then beat Hibernian in the quarter-finals before going on to win the competition.
In recent years, they have faced both Rangers and Celtic. They faced Rangers in the 1999/2000 Champions League winning 2-0 and 2-1 in the group stage. Then they put Celtic out on penalties in the 2000/01 Uefa Cup.
Valencia Factfile
FULL NAME – Valencia Club de Fútbol
NICKNAME – Els taronja (The Orange)FOUNDED – 1919
STADIUM – Mestalla (Capacity 55,000)
MANAGER – Unai Emery
LAST SEASON – 3rd in La Liga
OFFICIAL WEBSITE – http://www.valenciacf.es/en/Home/
Previous Meetings
1999/2000 UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Valencia 2 Rangers 0
Rangers 1 Valencia 2
Group C fixtures vs Rangers
Wed 20.10.2010 – Ibrox, Glasgow
Tue 2.11.2010 – Mestalla, Valencia