So this Tuesday I decided to figure out the exact starters for that Valencia vs Real Madrid game everyone’s buzzing about. Woke up thinking it’d be simple, right? Spoiler: it wasn’t.
The Annoying Hunt Begins
Grabbed my coffee first thing, obviously. Hopped online around 10 AM, fired up the usual sports sites. Figured I’d just grab the lineups real quick. Wrong. First site I hit? Lineups section was greyed out. Like, literally unclickable. Just spinning its wheels. Annoying. Hit refresh five times. Nada. Went to another big sports site next. Even worse – found an article titled “Probable Lineups”. Probable? I need definite, man! Not guesses. Felt like I was wasting my morning already.
Playing Detective with Lineup Clues
Took a break, walked the dog real fast. Brain worked better outside. Came back with a plan. Instead of hunting for some magical “Official Lineups” page like a noob, I went straight for the match centers on two different major platforms.
- Platform 1: Super detailed stats… but buried the starting XI under three layers. Had to click ‘Match Facts’, then ‘Teams’, THEN finally saw the players listed. Why hide it?
- Platform 2: Found them quicker under ‘Starting Lineups’, sweet! But… names were shortened weirdly. ‘J. Gaya’ for Valencia? Better be José Gayà. Had to cross-check with the player list page.
Copied both sets into Notepad++. Real Madrid looked solid: Lunin, Lucas V., Tchouaméni, Nacho, Mendy… no surprises. Valverde starting.
The Plot Twist… and Fixing My Mess
Almost felt done. Then I remembered – injuries! Wasn’t Courtois out? Scrolled down the Platform 2 page. Oh man. They listed Kepa on the bench! That was wrong. My notepad had Kepa warming pinewood. Checked Platform 1 again. Phew. They had Lunin starting, Kepa benched. Fixed it. Also caught Valencia: Mamardashvili in goal, not Domenech. Almost messed that up too. Double-checked every single player position against both sources. Yep, Pepelu was midfield for Valencia, not defense. Platform 1 had it right.
Putting it Together & Why I Bother
Got both final lineups looking clean. Made a quick comparison table using the trusty “Split Screen” trick on my old second monitor:
Valencia CF (4-4-2):
- Mamardashvili; Foulquier, Paulista, Mosquera, Gayà; Pérez, Pepelu, Guerra, López; Duro, Yaremchuk
Real Madrid (4-3-1-2):
- Lunin; Vázquez, Tchouaméni, Nacho, Mendy; Valverde, Kroos, Camavinga; Bellingham; Rodrygo, Vinícius Jr.
Noticed Madrid using that weird diamond again without a true striker. Valverde deeper. Valencia playing two up front. Felt solid. Took a screenshot of both sources side-by-side for proof, just in case some troll argued later.
Whole thing took way longer than expected – over an hour battling lazy websites and wrong bench info. Why do I bother? Cause half the “lineups” people post are guesses or outdated junk. Finding the real deal buried under ads and nonsense kinda bugged me today. But hey, got it done properly. Next time? Might just wait for the clubs’ official tweets. Maybe.