That says quite a lot." Winning the European Cup, he said, would be hard "But European football suits us well. Here in Spain some of the teams just get behind the ball and try to defend and defend and defend. That gives us problems." Nevertheless, Björklund thinks that Spanish football is in good shape at the moment, new money from television having given less fashionable clubs the strength to challenge the established giants. Sooner or later you're going to play, and you just have to take your chance." Why have Valencia been so impressive in Europe and so disappointing in their own league? "If I only knew," Björklund said. "One difference, I guess, is that in Europe we're playing the big teams, who try to play football, and that suits us quite well. The partnership frequently misfired, although Sanchez was able to return the favour when his break in the 71st minute led to Lopez extending the lead. A rival for the job of Lopez's straight man will be Goran Vlaovic, the Croatian international forward who joined Valencia from Padova three years ago and appeared on the bench on Saturday for the first time since picking up an injury in the cup final. The competition for starting places is intense "We've got a lot of good players," Björklund said "But there's going to be a lot of games this season.
The scorer of a superbly venomous goal against Bordeaux two weeks ago in their opening phase two match, he has been suffering from a mysterious complaint that was at first incorrectly diagnosed as hepatitis. Juan Sanchez took Ilie's place against Seville, and was on hand to profit from Claudio Lopez's sixth-minute corner kick. They've just won the InterContinental Cup, so they must be. "Of course, it's hard to say who's really the best, but they're certainly among the top three or four. That's good enough, isn't it?" The big news at Valencia's training camp in the low hills outside the suburb of Paterna, a few miles north-west of the city, on Friday was Ilie's announcement that he would be missing not just the next day's league match but the trip to Manchester. But I would say it's quite a different team now - more of a team, in fact. Of course, everyone who plays for Manchester United is a great individual, but there aren't really any superstars now, apart from maybe Beckham And they're the best team in the world. A tall, slender, straight-backed figure, Gerard attracts comparisons with Josep Guardiola, his former Barcelona team-mate. "Guardiola might be a better passer," Björklund said, "but I think Gerard is running up and down the pitch more, destroying the opponents' game, and he gets into the box a lot and scores some goals." Francisco Farinos, a 21-year-old full Spanish international, plays wide on the right, but an injury to Kily Gonzalez, a goalscoring midfielder formerly with Boca Juniors and Real Zaragoza, may provide an opportunity for Luis Milla, the experienced former Barcelona and Real Madrid man, on the left when they meet the European Cup holders on Wednesday. "I played against Manchester United in 1994 with Gothenburg," Björklund said "We lost 4-2 at Old Trafford and won 3-1 at home.
His lieutenant is the 22-year-old Gerard, rejected by Barcelona two years ago but currently, in Björklund's view, Valencia's most effective player. Behind them in goal, if he has recovered from a slight injury, will be Santiago Cañizares, 30, the long-time international understudy to Andoni Zubizarreta, although Andres Palop deputised efficiently against Seville. The midfield is run by Gaizka Mendieta, the club captain, a late-developing 25-year-old Basque whose long blond hair makes him stand out in a Spanish team and whose inspirational qualities generally overcome a tendency to sloppiness. On the flanks there are two experienced full backs, Jocelyn Angloma, a European Cup winner with Marseilles, and Amadeo Carboni, formerly of Roma, both aged 34. Like Björklund, who will be on the bench at Old Trafford, Pellegrino is 28, and forms a strong partnership with the 33-year-old Djukic. He failed to make an impression, and moved down the coast at Cuper's behest. Valencia's current defence is a Spanish equivalent of the classic Arsenal back four. The 6ft 4in Pellegrino won the Argentinian title and the first of his international caps with Velez Sarsfield before arriving in Europe to join Barcelona a year ago.
He took a month to recover, meanwhile losing his place to Miroslav Djukic, the Yugoslavian international, who will partner Mauricio Pellegrino on Wednesday. You have to be happy with that." Less happy for the Swede was a blow to the knee which forced his removal after 20 minutes of the second match against Bayern, six weeks ago. "To be honest," Björklund said, "we should have won both games against them They were a bit disappointing But we got two points from them and we won the group. After qualifying for the Champions' League by finishing fourth last year they have been languishing in the lower half of the table this season, dropping points to lesser teams while beating Real Madrid in the Bernabeu and, most recently, Barcelona at home. In the Champions' League, the performances have been far more impressive. Confronting Bayern Munich, Rangers and PSV Eindhoven in a strong first-phase group, Valencia won three and drew the remainder of their six matches to come out on top. They beat Rangers home and away, which produced mixed emotions in Björklund, who enjoyed his two seasons in Glasgow. They also drew both matches with Bayern, and considered themselves unlucky not to have taken six points from last year's beaten finalists. And anyway I think we're a bit more hard-working than a normal Spanish team." Hard working, but also sometimes - like Saturday night - hard to watch, and the results have been mixed.
"I think the new coach is trying to adapt to that, because we've got some pacy players up front and, if you play a short-passing game all the time, you give the opponent a bit more time to get behind the ball." At the back, too, there have been changes. "Last year," Björklund said, "we normally played with a back three - or a back five, whichever way you want to look at it This year we play 4-4-2, with a flat back four Apart from that, it's pretty much the same Cuper likes to get the players working for each other Ranieri was about the same in that respect. Now the ball is more likely to be played up to them through midfield, although the established strengths are not ignored. "We did quite well last year with the long balls," Joachim Björklund, the club's Swedish international centre back, formerly with IFK Gothenburg, Vicenza and Rangers, told me. Claudio Ranieri, an Italian, took them to last season's success before departing for Atletico Madrid.