Match report
Valencia find relief as Rioja ends their wait for a win
Valencia finally have a league win to build on. Their 1-0 victory at Alavés ends four straight defeats and gives interim coach Óscar Sánchez a positive start after Carlos Corberán's dismissal. The win takes them from one point to four and offers some relief, even with the recovery still at an early stage.
AI-assisted match report written from official match data and the sources linked below.
Luis Rioja supplied the difference from the bench, finishing Javi Guerra's through ball to break the deadlock. Valencia also needed Stole Dimitrievski to preserve that advantage, including a late save from Lucas Boyé's header. For a side short of confidence, protecting a narrow lead was as important as finding a goal.
After the match, Sánchez credited Corberán's staff with much of the team's defensive preparation and described his own staff's contribution as mainly psychological. He stressed that maintaining the response would be the harder task. Rioja said the result should lift morale, but stressed that Valencia need more wins to follow.
Alavés had won their first three home league games, so this is a setback at a ground that had underpinned their strong start. The defeat follows their loss at Racing Santander and leaves them with consecutive losses to address, although ten points from six games still represents a solid early return.
Report sources
Valencia won 1–0 away against Alaves (half-time 0–0).
Alaves met Valencia in the La Liga (Regular Season - 6). Kick-off was Tuesday, 15 September 2026, 18:00 UTC at Estadio Mendizorrotza. Referee: Miguel Sesma Espinosa.
Key moments
- 78' Goal: Luis Rioja (assist: Javi Guerra) — 0–1 · Watch Luis Rioja's goal video (78')
Starting line-ups
Alaves (3-5-2)
Valencia (4-2-3-1)
Sirius · Why these numbers
Before kick-off Sirius gave Alaves 50%, the draw 28%, Valencia 22%. It finished Alaves 0–1 Valencia.
Alaves' rating edge, but the draw is in play — Alaves are a shade stronger on our strength rating, and La Liga home advantage on top gives Alaves the lean. The draw at 28% is lifted by the early-season fade in home wins.
Why Alaves at 50%?
Alaves sit 57 points higher on our strength rating — 1818 to 1760. Sides with a 50–100-point rating edge at home won 50.5% of 10,467 such games. La Liga home sides out-perform the global norm — and the difference mostly flows to away wins (28.3% vs 30.2%). La Liga homes won 46.6% of 6,131 games vs 44.9% across all 100,217 — outside the noise band, so the tally moves accordingly.
Why only 50%?
Both sides are inside their first six league games — home wins land softer this early in the season, so this trims Alaves's column. Across 11,163 opening-stretch games since 2010, home sides won 42.7% where the rating map expected 44.9%, with draws up 2.0 — negative in every season since 2018.
Why is the draw second, ahead of the Valencia win?
With a rating gap this size the draw starts at 26.5%. These teams' recent games average 2.8 goals — a typical goals environment. Games in that environment drew 24.6% of 25,094. Early-season fixtures add 2.0 points to the draw.
What did we measure but not count?
Valencia come into this after a busy window — 8 arrivals and 13 departures over the summer. Squad turnover reads dramatic but hasn't moved results once the rating is controlled: the busiest windows landed within noise across 5,368 games, rebuilt elevens likewise across 5,446, and even losing the most regular starters showed nothing (5,336). Alaves are 1 game into a new manager (Quique Sánchez Flores), appointed 3 days ago. The famous new-manager bounce doesn't survive its receipt: sides with a new manager beat their rating by 0.9 points over 33,420 games — but sides on an equally bad run who kept their manager beat it by 2.4 over 31,777. The other measured facts on this page scored nothing either.
Sirius probabilities, frozen at kick-off. Analysis, not betting advice. How Sirius is doing this season · Full breakdown, evidence cards and squad news in the Match Insights tab
About this match
On this page: the Alaves vs Valencia final score and result, goal highlights and video clips of every goal, who scored, starting lineups, match stats and the full match report from this La Liga fixture.
- Who scored and when — a goal-by-goal timeline of the match.
- Match stats — possession, shots, expected goals (xG), corners and cards.
- Starting lineups and player ratings for both teams.
- Head-to-head record and recent form for both sides.
Watch the goals: goal highlights and video clips of every goal from Alaves 0–1 Valencia. Explore more on the Alaves and Valencia team pages or the La Liga page.