Valencia 2 - Betis 1

Valencia: Cañizares, Angulo, Raúl Albiol, David Navarro, Moretti; David Silva, Albelda, Edu (Marchena 89'), Vicente (Gavilán 91'); David Villa, Morientes (Regueiro 82'). 4-4-2.
Betis: Doblas; Oscar López, Juanito, Nano (Fernando Vega 87'), Romero; Miguel Angel (Capi 82'), Marcos Assunçao; Rivera, Maldonado, Xisco; Dani (Fernando 71'). 4-2-3-1.

Goals:
1-0. 32. Morientes. Controlled pass from Edu and fired shot wide of Doblas.
1-1. 53. Xisco. Steered header into near top corner from Romero's cross.
2-1. 61. Raúl Albiol. Volleyed ball in to far side of net after corner came back out.

Valencia opened the new season with a 2-1 win over Betis in a packed Mestalla stadium. The visitors had apparently delayed the sale of Joaquín to their opponents to avoid the embarrassment of him appearing against them, but it was another new signing Fernando Morientes who opened the scoring for the Chés on the half hour mark after David Villa and Edu combined to set him up.

With several players injured and the club still looking for new signings, Betis had to put out a makeshift line up, with Xisco, Maldonado and Dani in attack. Xisco had in fact put Cañizares to the test in the opening minutes, and eight minutes after the restart he caught the defence napping when he nipped in between Navarro and Albiol to head Romero's cross in to the top corner of the net.

Their joy only lasted another eight minutes or so though before Albiol restored the lead after the visiting defence had failed to clear a corner, and only some good goalkeeping by Doblas, in particular with a couple of saves from David Villa, prevented the home side from winning by a bigger margin.