2001–02 Valencia CF season

Valencia
2001–02 season
President	Jaime Ortí
Manager	Rafael Benítez
Stadium	Mestalla
La Liga	1st; (In 2002–03 UEFA Champions League)
UEFA Cup	Quarter-final
Copa del Rey	First round
Top goalscorer	Rubén Baraja (7)
Average home league attendance	45,211

During the 2001–02 season Valencia competed in La Liga, Copa del Rey and UEFA Cup.

Summary

Valencia won their first La Liga title since the 1970–71 season, in the first campaign of new trainer Rafael Benítez. The Tenerife recruit had a tough start to his job, with several dropped points and a midfield slot in the beginning of the season, culminating in a disqualification from Copa del Rey for fielding too many non-EU players. Benítez was reported to be near the sack before an away game against Espanyol. With Valencia trailing 2–0 at halftime, the resurgence of the team in the second half allowed the inexperienced coach to keep the job, and it got to be a starting point for a winning streak that eventually saw Valencia claiming the entire league, despite taking only 75 points and scoring a mere 51 goals.

With the attacking play not flowing as it was previously, the all-conquering defence improved further conceded only 29 goals, much thanks to keeper Santiago Cañizares and centre halves Mauricio Pellegrino and Roberto Ayala. Defensively minded midfielder Rubén Baraja happened to be the club top scorer with a mere seven goals, forming an effective protecting block with David Albelda.

Squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
1	GK	ESP	Santiago Cañizares
2	DF	ARG	Mauricio Pellegrino
3	DF	BRA	Fábio Aurélio
4	DF	ARG	Roberto Ayala
5	DF	YUG	Miroslav Đukić
6	MF	ESP	David Albelda
7	FW	NOR	John Carew
8	MF	ESP	Rubén Baraja
9	FW	ESP	Salva
10	MF	ESP	Angulo
11	FW	ROU	Adrian Ilie
12	DF	ESP	Carlos Marchena
13	GK	ESP	Andrés Palop
14	MF	ESP	Vicente
15	DF	ITA	Amedeo Carboni


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
16	MF	ROU	Dennis Şerban
17	FW	ESP	Juan Sánchez
18	MF	ARG	Kily González
19	MF	ESP	Francisco Rufete
20	DF	FRA	Jocelyn Angloma
21	MF	ARG	Pablo Aimar
22	MF	URU	Gonzalo de los Santos
23	DF	ESP	Curro Torres
24	FW	ESP	Mista
25	GK	ESP	David Rángel
26	MF	ESP	Jandro
31	DF	ESP	David Navarro
34	DF	ESP	Javier Garrido Ramírez
—	MF	PAR	Ángel Amarilla

Transfers

In
Pos.	Name	from	Type
FW	Salva	Atletico Madrid	€10.80 million
DF	Curro Torres	Tenerife	loan ended
DF	Carlos Marchena	Benfica	Free
DF	David Navarro	Valencia Mestalla
MF	Francisco Rufete	Malaga	€7.75 million
MF	Gonzalo de los Santos	Malaga	€15.00 million
MF	Dennis Șerban	Elche
FW	Mista	Tenerife	loan ended

Out
Pos.	Name	To	Type
MF	Gaizka Mendieta	Lazio	€48.0 million^[2]
MF	Didier Deschamps		retired^[3]
DF	Joachim Björklund	Venezia	€4.0 million
MF	Luis Milla		retired^[4]
MF	Zlatko Zahovic	Benfica	Free
FW	Diego Alonso	Atletico Madrid	loan

Competitions

La Liga

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Valencia (C)	38	21	12	5	51	27	+24	75	Qualification for the Champions League group stage
2	Deportivo La Coruña	38	20	8	10	65	41	+24	68
3	Real Madrid^[a]	38	19	9	10	69	44	+25	66
4	Barcelona	38	18	10	10	65	37	+28	64	Qualification for the Champions League third qualifying round
5	Celta Vigo	38	16	12	10	64	46	+18	60	Qualification for the UEFA Cup first round

Source: LFP
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd head-to-head points; 3rd head-to-head goal difference; 4th head-to-head goals scored; 5th goal difference; 6th number of goals scored; 7th Fair-play points
(C) Champions
Notes:

^ Real Madrid qualified directly for the 2002–03 UEFA Champions League as holders.

Results by round

Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38
Ground	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	H	A	H	A	H	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	A	H	A	H	A
Result	W	D	W	D	D	D	W	D	W	D	W	D	D	L	D	L	W	W	W	L	L	W	W	W	D	D	W	W	W	L	W	W	W	D	W	W	W	W
Position	10	7	3	6	7	9	6	5	4	5	2	3	4	5	7	8	8	7	3	5	7	4	3	1	2	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1

Source: Competitive Matches
A = Away; H = Home; W = Win; D = Draw; L = Loss; = Leader, 2002-03 UEFA Champions League group stage; = 2002-03 UEFA Champions League group stage; = 2002-03 UEFA Champions League qualifying round; = 2002-03 UEFA Cup; = 2002-03 Segunda Division

Matches

25 August 2001 1	Valencia	1–0	Real Madrid
	Angulo 8'

9 September 2001 2	Valladolid	1–1	Valencia
	Caminero 30'		Salva 90'

16 September 2001 3	Valencia	1–0	Las Palmas
	Albelda 62'

23 September 2001 4	Athletic	2–2	Valencia
	Etxeberría 64' Carlos García 90'		Ayala 44' Aimar 47'

30 September 2001 5

Valencia

0–0

Alavés

4 October 2001 6	Celta	1–1	Valencia
	Maurice 48'		Juan Sánchez 6'

7 October 2001 7	Valencia	1–0	Villarreal
	Salva 45'

14 October 2001 8	Barcelona	2–2	Valencia
	Saviola 43' Gabri 74'		Salva 26' Marchena 72'

21 October 2001 9	Valencia	2–0	Zaragoza
	González 32', 80'

28 October 2001 10	Sevilla	1–1	Valencia
	Moisés 46'		Albelda 20'

4 November 2001 11	Valencia	2–1	Rayo
	Salva 22' Juan Sánchez 88'		Peragón 40' (pen.)

11 November 2001 12

Osasuna

0–0

Valencia

18 November 2001 13

Valencia

0–0

Tenerife

25 November 2001 14	Real Sociedad	2–0	Valencia
	Jankauskas 38', 65' (pen.)

1 December 2001 15	Valencia	1–1	Mallorca
	Mista 80'		Luque 13'

9 December 2001 16	Deportivo	1–0	Valencia
	Tristán 59'

15 December 2001 17	Espanyol	2–3	Valencia
	Palencia 24' Alex Fernández 44'		Rufete 59', 63' Ilie 66'

22 December 2001 18	Valencia	2–1	Málaga
	Vicente 25' Mista 30'		Silva 14'

6 January 2002 19	Betis	1–3	Valencia
	Capi 43'		Salva 8' Ilie 16' Baraja 80' (pen.)

13 January 2002 20	Real Madrid	1–0	Valencia
	Morientes 72'

20 January 2002 21	Valencia	1–2	Valladolid
	Pellegrino 26'		Luis García 20' Sales 35'

26 January 2002 22	Las Palmas	0–1	Valencia
			Mista 7'

3 February 2002 23	Valencia	2–1	Athletic
	Mista 14' Rufete 66'		Etxeberría 73'

6 February 2002 24	Alavés	1–2	Valencia
	Astudillo 2'		de los Santos 3' Carew 27'

9 February 2002 25

Valencia

0–0

Celta

16 February 2002 26	Villarreal	1–1	Valencia
	Arruabarrena 54'		Aimar 83'

23 February 2002 27	Valencia	2–0	Barcelona
	Rufete 16' Aimar 63'

3 March 2002 28	Zaragoza	0–1	Valencia
			Rufete 24'

10 March 2002 29	Valencia	2–0	Sevilla
	Juan Sánchez 66' Angulo 89'

17 March 2002 30	Rayo	2–1	Valencia
	Pellegrino 45' (o.g.) Corino 58'		Angulo 29'

24 March 2002 31	Valencia	2–1	Osasuna
	Juan Sánchez 78' Baraja 90'		Aloisi 85'

30 March 2002 32	Tenerife	0–1	Valencia
			Aimar 77'

7 April 2002 33	Valencia	4–0	Real Sociedad
	Baraja 12' González 28' Angulo 55' Mista 89'

13 April 2002 34	Mallorca	1–1	Valencia
	Luque 45'		Baraja 63'

21 April 2002 35	Valencia	1–0	Deportivo
	Duscher 69' (o.g.)

27 April 2002 36	Valencia	2–1	Espanyol
	Baraja 68', 79'		Tamudo 30' (pen.)

5 May 2002 37	Málaga	0–2	Valencia
			Ayala 35' Fábio Aurélio 45'

11 May 2002 38	Valencia	2–0	Betis
	Baraja 44' Vicente 90'

UEFA Cup

Quarter-finals

14 March 2002 (2002-03-14)	Internazionale	1–1	Valencia	San Siro, Milan
21:00	Materazzi 50'	Report	Rufete 66'	Attendance: 24,184 Referee: Markus Merk (Germany)

21 March 2002 (2002-03-21)	Valencia	0–1	Internazionale	Estadio Mestalla, Valencia
21:45		Report	Ventola 4'	Attendance: 50,000 Referee: Claude Colombo (France)

Statistics

Players statistics

No.	Pos	Nat	Player	Total		La Liga		Copa del Rey		UEFA Cup
No.	Pos	Nat	Player	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
1	GK	ESP	Cañizares	40	-26	32	-23	1	0	7	-3
23	DF	ESP	Curro Torres	45	0	34	0	1	0	10	0
2	DF	ARG	Pellegrino	38	1	30	1	1	0	7	0
4	DF	ARG	Ayala	37	2	29	2	0+1	0	7	0
15	DF	ITA	Carboni	43	0	32+1	0	1	0	9	0
21	MF	ARG	Aimar	40	6	23+10	4	0+1	0	6	2
19	MF	ESP	Rufete	41	8	27+6	5	1	1	6+1	2
6	MF	ESP	Albelda	39	3	32	2	0	0	6+1	1
14	MF	ESP	Vicente	40	3	22+9	2	1	0	5+3	1
10	FW	ESP	Angulo	31	6	21+5	4	0	0	3+2	2
9	FW	ESP	Salva	26	7	19+3	5	1	0	1+2	2
13	GK	ESP	Palop	10	-8	6+1	-4	0	0	3	-4
18	MF	ARG	Kily González	32	3	15+11	3	0	0	5+1	0
8	MF	ESP	Baraja	18	7	15+2	7	0	0	0+1	0
5	DF	YUG	Djukic	26	1	14+2	0	1	0	7+2	1
17	FW	ESP	Sánchez	33	8	12+13	4	0	0	5+3	4
12	DF	ESP	Marchena	22	1	12+4	1	1	0	3+2	0
22	MF	URU	De los Santos	21	1	12+1	1	1	0	6+1	0
24	FW	ESP	Mista	34	6	10+16	5	0	0	3+5	1
3	DF	BRA	Fábio Aurélio	19	1	6+9	1	0	0	2+2	0
7	FW	NOR	Carew	24	1	6+9	1	1	0	6+2	0
11	FW	ROU	Ilie	13	5	6+4	2	0	0	3	3
20	DF	FRA	Angloma	4	0	2+1	0	0	0	0+1	0
31	DF	ESP	Navarro	3	0	1+1	0	0	0	0+1	0
16	MF	ROU	Serban	4	0	0+3	0	0+1	0
26	MF	ESP	Jandro	1	0	0+1	0
25	GK	ESP	David Rángel	0	0	0	0	0	0
	DF	PAR	Amarilla

Source: https://www.bdfutbol.com/en/t/t2001-0236.html

Topscorers

References

^ https://www.european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn/archive/esp/aveesp02.htm
^ Acedo, Francisco (4 November 2016). "Mendieta to retire". Sky Sports. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
^ "Factbox: New France coach Didier Deschamps". Reuters. 8 July 2012. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
^ Casado, Edu (17 November 2008). "Qué fue de… Luis Milla". 20 minutos (in Spanish). Retrieved 6 February 2024.

[table_note_RMA0.7361241144762-5] Real Madrid qualified directly for the 2002–03 UEFA Champions League as holders.

[1] ttps://www.european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn/archive/esp/aveesp02.htm

[2] Acedo, Francisco (4 November 2016). "Mendieta to retire". Sky Sports. Retrieved 6 February 2024.

[3] "Factbox: New France coach Didier Deschamps". Reuters. 8 July 2012. Retrieved 6 February 2024.

[4] Casado, Edu (17 November 2008). "Qué fue de… Luis Milla". 20 minutos (in Spanish). Retrieved 6 February 2024.

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