Valencia 2 - Olympiakos 1

Valencia: Cañizares; Anglomá, Djukic, Pellegrino, Carboni; Mendieta, Deschamps, Baraja, Kily González; Zahovic (Juan Sánchez 67'), Diego Alonso (Carew 85'). 4-4-2.

Goals:
1-0. 35. Baraja. Header from centre of area after corner on right by Mendieta.
2-0. 44. Diego Alonso. Another header, this time from Mendieta's free kick.
2-1. 73. Djordjevic. Half hit shot which deflected down off Anglomá past keeper.

With Mendieta on centre stage (or rather stage right), Valencia recorded a comfortable victory in their first match of the league phase. The Spanish international was responsible for the two dead-ball kicks, the first a corner and the second a free kick, which lead to Valencia's two first half goals. The first came ten minutes before half time, with Baraja losing his marker to head home from the middle of the penalty area (his first goal for his new club), and the second arrived a few minutes later, with Diego Alonso getting ahead of the defence to head his third of the competition. Earlier Mendieta had struck a thunderous thirty metre shot which cannoned against the upright. Valencia had controlled the game right from the start, and the goals were just reward for their efforts, with Olympiakos only getting one real shot at goal, a spectacular effort from Luciano. Valencia couldd and should have gone further ahead in the second half, with Diego Alonso going close twice in the space of two minutes, but it was Olympiakos who surprisingly got back into the game when Djordjevic's shot took a deflection off Anglomá's arm. This was one of those games where the visitors could just have snatched a draw, and when another effort from Carboni bounced back off the post the crowd started to get nervous. However Valencia kept their cool and played out the remaining minutes to start the new league stage with a win.