Valencia (0) 3 - Leeds United (0) 0

Valencia: Cañizares; Angloma, Ayala, Pellegrino, Fabio Aurelio; Mendieta (Angulo 74'), Albelda, Aimar (Deschamps 70'), Kily González (Vicente 65'); Juan Sánchez, Carew. 4-4-2.
Leeds: Martyn; Mills, Ferdinand, Matteo, Harte; Bakke, Batty, Dacourt, Kewell; Smith, Viduka. 4-4-2.

Goals:
1-0. 15. Juan Sánchez. Turned cross from Mendieta into net with upper arm.
2-0. 47. Juan Sánchez. Speculative shot from outside area which beat Martyn.
3-0. 52. Mendieta. Shot from outside of area into bottom corner of net.

Héctor Cúper's Valencia qualified for the Champions League final for the second year in a row after beating Leeds United in the Mestalla stadium. At the start of the season nobody would have bet on the East coast team repeating their success from last year, especially after star striker Claudio López and young midfielders Gerard and Farinós all left the club, but Cúper rebuilt his side as he did at Mallorca earlier and came back even stronger than ever. With a 0-0 result from the first leg Valencia were always favourites to win this game against a Leeds United side playing for the fourth time this season in Spain, and the UEFA disciplinary committee gave them a helping hand when Lee Bowyer was suspended for three games on video evidence for stamping on Ayala in the first leg. As expected though they also handed out one match bans to Valencia's Carboni and Baraja after they picked up their third yellow cards of the competition in the same match, and Cúper brought in young Brazilian left back Fabio Aurelio and winter signing Aimar to complete his starting line up, with Albelda keeping his place in defensive midfield.

The inclusion of Aimar was a bit of a surprise, Angulo tipped to start by most sports commentators, and it demonstrated Cúper's resolve to get an early goal and wrap this match up as soon as possible. And the plan worked, Juan Sánchez opening the scoring after fifteen minutes with a controversial goal, the Leeds players claiming vehemently that the striker had turned Mendieta's cross in to the net with his upper arm. It was a difficult decision but referee Urs Meier gave the goal after asking Sánchez in true Swiss boy scout fashion if he had touched the ball with his arm. Well what would you say? Never touched it ref. It was only after countless replays from different camera angles that it became clear that he had, although from photographs in the papers it seems that if the referee had only looked at the muddy mark on the sleeve of the player's shirt he would have known. As it happened history had repeated itself, as only weeks ago Raúl scored a vital goal against the same team with a more blatant hand ball.

Leeds only replies in the first half were long shots which gave Cañizares little trouble, and Valencia took their single goal lead in at the break. Within seven minutes of the restart though it was all over, with Valencia scoring twice as most Leeds supporters (and half the defence?) were still on the way back from the bar with the Bovrils. With the half only two minutes old Sánchez proved that he can score legal goals too with a speculative shot from the edge of the area, catching Martyn out of position with a rapid change of direction to fire low into the bottom corner of the net. Before Leeds had time to react Mendieta broke free but ran the ball too far, and only a minute later he found space again on the edge of the area, this time beating the keeper with a strong shot into the same corner that Sánchez had found five minutes earlier. David O'Leary's side had no answer, with Viduka getting his name crossed off Real Madrid's shopping list with a poor performance, and Sánchez almost got his hat-trick with a shot against the post. Martyn produced good saves from Kily González, Mendieta and Carew as Valencia came looking for a fourth, and Cúper started to take off his players who were within a card of a one match ban, starting with Aimar who had been booked earlier and then replacing Kily and Mendieta.

Then in the last minute Leeds were reduced to ten men after Smith got himself sent off for a tackle on Vicente, and Meier blew the final whistle. Valencia had kept up their incredible 28 match 9 year unbeaten home record in Europe, and more importantly were back in the final again, having to wait 24 hours to see if their opponents in Milan would be Real Madrid or Bayern Munich. Cúper takes a Spanish team to a European final for the third year in a row, and fans finally realised (possibly a little too late) the man's worth, forgetting their chants for him to go earlier in the season and pleading with him to stay on. Leeds go out of the competition, but they have an exciting young side and will undoubtedly be back soon. O'Leary surprised and impressed the Spanish press with his gentlemanly behaviour, not wanting to put any blame on the referee for his mistake in the first goal and admitting that the best side won. Imagine a Spanish manager saying that? He wouldn't last five minutes!