Manu García’s last-gasp goal gave Alavés their first home win over Real since 1931 as the visitors lost their third game in four“I was crapping myself,” admitted Alavés coach Abelardo Fernández. So was Real Madrid manager Julen Lopetegui. When the board went up, a red five glistening in the rain, he shot wild, pained looks. “Five?!” he shouted, “por favor! por favor!” It was 0-0, Mendizorroza was bouncing, holding on for an historic draw and Lopetegui’s team were approaching seven hours without scoring. As it turned out, it was just long enough. Related: Dortmund are raw, visceral, thrilling and a throwback to Klopp heyday | Andy Brassell ICYMI, could this goal cost Lopetegui his job? Real Madrid now in their...
It took until the sixth game for Alavés to win and by then two coaches had gone. Now survival in La Liga is within reachIn the words of one player, Abelardo Fernández is “an ordinary bloke” but he is doing extraordinary things, from revolution at the Molinón to resurrection at Mendizorroza, where at the end of their victory over Deportivo de La Coruña on Saturday, Alavés fans did something Alavés fans never do: they turned their backs on their team. Turned their backs, put their arms around each other’s shoulders, a human wall stretching across the east end of the ground, and bounced up and down, singing. In the middle of it, drums were held up and flags waved. At...
Only Barcelona and Atlético can match Eibar’s results over the last three months as another unlikely run at Europe continuesIván Ramis took off his shirt and put his hat on, a flat red porkpie perched on his head as he stood in the corner of Butarque where a couple of dozen Eibar fans down from the Ego valley were going wild in wigs: some red, some blue and some Scottish, ginger locks tumbling from tam o’ shanters. As he had flung his top high into the air before running towards them shouting, they had thrown the hat on the pitch; so he wore it, along with a smile that even the referee trotting over with a yellow card couldn’t wipe...
Southampton’s new manager, highly regarded for his man-management and tactical nous, obsesses about the damage victory can inflict on players’ hungerThere were around 40 people on the coaching course Mauricio Pellegrino took when he was a player at Valencia in 1999 and he wanted to know what it was that moved them to be there, so he did something he has done ever since football took him from his home in the Argentinian pampas: he asked and he listened. There were all sorts of reasons but surprisingly few matched his. For some, it was just something to do. For others, it was about money, just a job. Not for Pellegrino. He asked a friend there whether he would take it...