Cheryshev reaches 100th LaLiga appearance milestone

The LaLiga win over Levante UD provided many reasons to celebrate: The 3 points helped Valencia CF to keep up the pace in the battle for 4th place, and the victory gave them bragging rights in the city. It was also a milestone game for Denis Cheryshev, who reached 100 appearances in the Primera División.

Almost a third of the Russian’s games in the top flight have been for Valencia CF, with him featuring in 33 across two spells at the club. This season he has played a total of 26 league matches -joint most with the 2014/1015 campaign at Villarreal.

His other matches have been for Sevilla (4), Villarreal (61), and Real Madrid (2) in a career that has at times been blighted by injuries. That has meant that Cheryshev is taking nothing for granted: “Every game is like a reward for me, after seasons in which I haven’t been able to enjoy my football so much,” he said after the game against Levante.

“Playing at Mestalla is like playing with a twelfth man. The fans pick you up and carry you to victory,” he added, also remembering his favourite of his 11 goals in the Primera División -a winner against Espanyol in his first spell at the club.

His first league outing for VCF was on February 7th 2016, against Real Betis -coincidentally the next opponents for Marcelino’s men in LaLiga.