Valencia in urgent need of effective attacker

Valencia and Leicester City finished 1-1 in a pre-season friendly that exposed the Spanish club’s urgent need for another effective attacker.

Valencia continue negotiations with Paris SaintGermain to acquire winger Gonçalo Guedes, who spent last season with the Spanish side on loan from PSG, reports EFE news agency.

But in the meantime, coach Marcelino has yet to find the right player or combination of players to bolster the left side of his offence.

The visitors made a good start at King Power Stadium here on Wednesday, but the first goal went to the hosts, a strike by Kelechi Iheanacho in the 10th minute.

Leicester seized the initiative and Iheanacho caused some anxious moments for the Valencia defence until Piccini, Ferran and Zaza combined to set up Dani Parejo’s equaliser in the 17th minute.

The Spanish squad went on to dominate possession for the rest of the first half, but were unable to gain the lead.

Both teams made changes at the restart and Leicester re-asserted themselves against a Valencia side without Parejo.

Juventus beat MLS AllStars 5-3 via penalty shootout in the annual exhibition match in Atlanta after the match ended in a 1-1 tie after regular time.

The Italian champions went into the lead in the 21st minute on Wednesday with a goal from Andrea Favilli, reports EFE news agency.

After five minutes the MLS All-Stars equalised the score with a goal from Atlanta United’s Venezuelan forward Josef Martinez.

Atlanta United manager Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino who coached the MLS-Alls Stars team chose to rotate his playing 11 to accommodate the 26 players he selected.

Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri too brought in eight changes after halftime and two more after the 65th minute into the game.