In the moments before the final game of Valencia CF’s first century of existence, Mestalla was spectacularly decorated with banners and flags celebrating the Centenary.

 The players came out to the sound of the ‘Valencia’ march, written by José Padilla and performed by the ‘Agrupació Musical Cultural de Teulada’ band, and accompanied by 11 visually impaired children from the ONCE Foundation.

Surrounding the pitch were some 30 giant flags bearing the VCF badge and the Centenary logo, whilst in the stands an enormous banner reading “Un Segle de Sentiment Etern” (“A century of an eternal sentiment”) and displaying pictures of the trophies won by Valencia CF was unfurled. On the video scoreboard, a countdown to March 18th, the club’s centenary date, and messages of congratulations from fans received on social media were shown.

Watching on from the presidential box were descendants of the club’s first two presidents, Octavio Augusto Milego and Gonzalo Medina, who will also take part in Centenary activities on Monday.

After the warmup, 2019 Valencia Falleras Mayores Marina Civera and Sara Larrazábal, were given a special shirt with the number 100 on the back, and local Paralympic Triathlete Héctor Catalá took the honourary kickoff. Catalá has only 10% vision, continuing the Centenary theme that has also included the placing of the bronze statue in the Tribuna section of Mestalla with an emotional story behind it.

Both before the game against Getafe CF got underway and during halftime, representatives from official online betting partner bwin threw shirts into the crowd, received by fans joining in the Centenary celebrations.