Zaragoza crushes Valencia with a 4-0 win

Jonas trying to win the ball against Leonardo Ponzio

Real Zaragoza turned up the heat on Valencia coach Unai Emery with a thumping 4-0 win. Valencia president Manuel Llorente backed the coach after the club tumbled out of the UEFA Champions League at the hands of Schalke in midweek, but got far from the perfect response at La Romareda.

Goals from Jiri Jarosik and Ander Herrera in the first half and a brace of penalties after the break from Gabi completed a miserable night for Valencia. They finished the game with ten men as Marius Stankevicius was sent off in the 65th minute for a second yellow card he received in conceding the first penalty.

Valencia got off to a poor start as they conceded after just four minutes with Jarosik heading a Javier Paredes free-kick from the right into the roof of the net. At the other end Zaragoza goalkeeper Toni Doblas fumbled a cross from Jeremy Mathieu but got away with it.

Ikechukwu Uche had a chance to double the hosts lead in the 39th minute but his shot from six yards was weak and went wide. However, the Nigerian made up for that miss just a minute later by crossing for Herrera to knock home the second.

Things went from bad to worse for the visitors in the 65th minute as Stankevicius brought down Nicolas Bertolo in the area. The Lithuanian collected his second booking and Gabi stroked home the penalty.

Zaragoza were rampant now and Braulio's shot was tipped round the post by goalkeeper Vicente Guaita. The keeper, although, was picking the ball out of his net for a fourth time in the 74th minute after Gabi coolly sent another penalty into the bottom corner after David Albelda had fouled Braulio to put the seal on a comprehensive win.