FCBARCELONA.CAT

17.09.2009 14:10

Valdés 17 minutes away from a personal record

Berta Brau

Víctor Valdés is just over a quarter of an hour away from beating his own personal record for not conceding a goal, which currently stands at 542 minutes. Last season he only conceded six goals in the opening 17 minutes of matches.

The match against Inter Milan was the Barça keeper’s fifth clean sheet in a row. Despite the efforts of Eto’o, Milito, Sneijder and the rest, Valdés held out for the 90 minutes and is now just 17 minutes away from beating his personal best.

Five matches unbeaten

San Mamés, first leg of the Spanish Super Cup, minute 44, a goal by De Marcos. That was the last time Valdés had to pick the ball up from the back of his own net. Since then he has kept five clean sheets in a month and a half against Sporting Gijón, Getafe, Athletic Bilbao, Shakhtar Donetsk and Inter Milan.

542 minutes

Valdés set his current record in the 2005/2006 season against Panathinaikos (0-0), Osasuna (3-0), Malaga (2-0), Real Sociedad (5-0) and (again) Panathinaikos (5-0).

Few early goals

In addition, Barça rarely concede goals in the opening minutes of matches. Last season, Valdés only conceded six goals before the 17th minute. The quickest came against Olympique Lyon, scored by Juninho in the 7th minute of the first leg of the R16 CL tie. The other five early goals were scored by Numancia (Mario min 13), Malaga (Duda min 12), Mallorca (Aduriz min 15), Real Madrid (Higuaín min 13) and Chelsea (Essien min 9).