published: thursday 19 september 2013, 21.45cet valencia cf 0-3 swansea city afc
the visitors made a statement of intent on their return to europe thanks to goals from wilfried bony, michu and jonathan de guzmán.
swansea city afc enjoyed a spectacular uefa europa league debut by sweeping aside ten-man valencia cf 3-0 at mestalla.
visiting coach michael laudrup could scarcely have wished for a better start after labelling valencia as "favourites for the group" prior to kick-off. wilifried bony opened the scoring after adil rami had been sent off on ten minutes, and michu consolidated swansea's lead in the second period. midfielder jonathan de guzmán then completed the rout by adding a spectacular third.
an initially even contest in group a changed dramatically when rami received a red card for upending bony as the powerful forward bore down on vicente guaita's goal. the premier league outfit took control from then on, opening the scoring just four minutes later.
a flowing build-up culminated in michu crossing from the left and bony doing the rest from close range. the visitors almost doubled their lead soon after, nathan dyer firing just wide after a slip from ricardo costa, before bony drilled off target.
going into the game on the back of three straight liga losses, miroslav djukić's side struggled to find their rhythm and went further behind in the 58th minute when alejandro pozuelo's searching pass found michu, who steadied himself before firing confidently past guaita. things got worse for the hosts four minutes later as de guzman made guaita's net billow with a glorious 30-metre free-kick.
