Valencia ready for Cuper's last stand

Valencia prides itself on being the fiesta city and they celebrated long and loud in carnival fashion on Tuesday night. Thousands crammed the streets outside the players' entrance across the road from the Cerveceria Momentos awaiting for their heroes to appear one by one on the balcony above. The sea of people lauding their team was quite magnificent to behold. As someone said: "You can see why Spanish football is so good. They care about it that much."

It was hard to argue with the sentiment as at that moment the Valencia captain and the team's leader in every sense, Gaizka Mendieta, stepped forward to take his bow. The place went daft. Then the thousands bowed like Muslims in prayer in front of their club's very own saviour.

It was all vivid acknowledgment this club, that has not won the Spanish title since 1971, but which has made consecutive European Cup finals, is experiencing a remarkable rite of passage. To the locals it feels like an historic time. As David O'Leary had said of Leeds United's chance: it could 26 more years before it comes again.

Down in the basement of the towering Mestalla stadium, the Valencia manager Hector Cuper was besieged by microphones. The Argentinian with distant British ancestry had organised a supreme recovery from the disappointment of Valencia's flat performance in Paris last May. Yet while he was being mobbed with enthusiasm, the question on everyone's lips, and in print in yesterday's Spanish press was: "Is Milan Hector's Farewell?"

The answer it seems is that the San Siro on May 23rd will be Cuper's last match for Valencia. Barcelona have called - indirectly - and the view in Spain is Cuper is 90 per cent certain to leave for the Nou Camp. It will be a loss felt heavily in Valencia, though the blow would be lessened by victory in Milan.

Cuper sat in the airport yesterday afternoon, bound for Munich to see who his last match will be against. No business lounge privacy for this man: he sat in the cafe and puffed away on his cigarettes.

O'Leary, meanwhile, was back in Yorkshire doubtless thinking about Leeds' loosened grip on a Champions League place next season. About the best news Leeds had received on Tuesday came from Anfield where Liverpool's 2-2 draw with Chelsea offered Leeds some hope of another qualification.

But it has a forlorn feel, just as the Leeds players had appeared on the Mestalla pitch, mobile phones pressed to their ears as Valencia began its party. Leeds left from the other side of the stadium. The reactions had been mixed, some pride at getting this far, some disappointment that on the night they had been well beaten, some fear that next season will not be so gloriously continental.

"I still think we probably have a bit to learn," said David Batty, one of four Leeds players given a spiteful mark of zero in the sports daily Marca. "Maybe we haven't got the strength in depth." That Valencia were able to bring on a gifted Spanish international like Vicente was evidence of the gap between the clubs.

So that is next issue facing O'Leary and his chairman, Peter Ridsdale. While O'Leary mentioned three or four players coming in during the summer, Ridsdale said: "More like one or two." Ridsdale added they will both be British and that could signal an auction with Manchester United for Kieron Dyer. Leeds's advantage here is that Dyer's best friend in the game is Rio Ferdinand.

Ferdinand was another awarded nothing by Marca, again spiteful. The languid former West Ham player has improved immeasurably since joining Leeds for £18 million. Already a more efficient defender, Ferdinand is also maturing rapidly as captain.

He is beginning to speak like a captain, too. "This is just the beginning," he said. "I have come here to play European football, I've experienced it now and I want more. I hope we can learn from this, take it into next season and become a better team.

"The squad is only being built and there will be a few new players coming in this summer. The gaffer has made that quite clear. We've got to be sure we take on the good points of this journey. The thing we have learned most is the importance of concentration. The further you go in the Champions League, the fewer mistakes you can make."

It was good to hear. No complaints about Juan Sanchez' bicep. "We've been beaten by a great team," Ferdinand said.

Outside the roars of the crowd told that they agreed.