Valencia club officials and the police spent Monday morning viewing CCTV footage of Sunday night's match at Mestalla in an attempt to identify the person who threw a bottle that hit Barcelona forward Lionel Messi on the head, but so far without success.
The bottle was thrown from the stands high in the Gol Gran area of the stadium, where the security cameras have no field of vision.
The reason given for this "black spot" is that the cameras with the ability to watch that area are focused on the Curva Nord, where 1,850 supporters aged under 35 congregate. The zone is also called the "youth stand," which many stadiums adopt and where the most vocal fans are to be found.
However, the bottle in question, along with various other projectiles aimed at Barcelona players as they celebrated Sergio Busquets' late winning goal, was not thrown from the Curva Nord. The club and the police are to ask for footage of the match from the television companies that broadcast it.
Valencia CF stressed that it has a "zero tolerance" policy towards this type of incident. However, the club said that it was an isolated incident and that the plastic bottle did not have its cap, and thus "security protocols" at the turnstiles "had been followed."
The bottle hit Messi on the head in the aftermath of Busquets' 93rd-minute goal. The forward rushed to his teammate and was hit while on the turf. The player removed the object from the pitch himself and then surprisingly received a yellow card from match referee Fernandez Borbalan, who noted in his match report that "several plastic bottle (without caps)" were thrown.
Barcelona announced on Monday that the club will appeal against Messi's booking.