FROM FULHAM TO VALENCIA: WHEN MIRACLES HAPPEN IN FOOTBALL

Football can be considered to be one of the most unpredictable of sports. 
Yesterday's match between Valencia and Basel was proof of that  yet again.
The Spanish team is going through one of its worst seasons in La Liga: they are 8th and have won only once in the last 7 games, with 3 draws and 3 losses.
To make things worse, in the first leg of their quarterfinals against Basel they were defeated 3-0, leaving only the most optimistic of fans hoping for a comeback.
And then it happened.
On their home turf, in front of 34.000 astonished spectators, Valencia first equalized the score during the regular 90', then definitively crushed the Swiss team's dreams of a second Europa League semifinal in a row by scoring again twice. 

DON'T COUNT YOUR CHICKENS BEFORE THEY ARE HATCHED

This is the first time the Europa League has seen a winning comeback after a 3-0 loss. However, the European Cups present us with various examples of how football can become a matter of miracles.
The most recent episode dates back to the first edition of the Europa League: in the last-16 stage, Juventus won their first match against Fulham 3-1, but was defeated in the return match at Craven Cottage 4-1 (even harder to believe, the Italians were leading after only 120' seconds!).
And if Valencia was able to recover from a 1-2-3 combo, how about being able to get back on you feet after receiving a poker of punches? FK Partizan was able to make the unthinkable happen in the 1984/1985 Champions League (defeated in England 6-2 but victorious 4-0 in front of their home fans), and Real Madrid repeated the feat again one year later against Borussia Mönchengladbach (losing 5-1 in Germany and winning   4-0 at the Bernabeu).

"TARONGES" STATS

Valencia has now become the team with the most goals scored in this edition of the Europa League (23, without the help of penalty kicks).

It seems that the Spaniards have declared war on Swiss teams this year, as before their encounter with Basel they inflicted a "manita" to FC Saint Gallen (in their 5-1 win during the group stage).

For the 21-year-od striker Paco Alcacer this is the first hat-trick of his career with the Spanish club (up to yesterday, he had never been able to even score twice in the same match).

As we're on the topic of things happening in threes, this is the third time in Valencia's European track record that they have won 5-0. The other two occasions date back to the early years of the XXI century: in the first Champions League edition of the new millennium their victim was the Austrian squad Sturm Graz, the year after it was the Russian club Chernomorets Novorossisk's turn.