Málaga, Las Palmas and Deportivo La Coruña will almost certainly be relegated after Paco López returned to his boyhood club to mastermind their stunning surge towards safety“Keep calm,” Levante’s manager, Paco López, said but he knew better than anyone that it was a bit late for that. Maybe tomorrow. For now, Sunday lunchtime in the Valencian sunshine, it was time to enjoy it, like he’d said from the start. His players had thrown shirts into the crowd and turned the pitch into a mosh pit, pushing and pogoing, dancing round a circle, emotion escaping as they embraced and 24,001 red-and-blue flags waved: 24,000 around the ground and one high above them all. Along the east stand, the division’s team’s flags...
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...
Sporting’s relegation was all their own work, a result of institutional crisis, social divide and financial limitations. Survival, then, for Depor and LeganésThere were two minutes left on the penultimate night when Fernando Amorebieta approached the bench one last time. Any news? He would have heard if there was and deep down he knew what they were going to say, but he had to ask. By the touchline at Ipurua they waited, phones and radios at the ready, and the scene was repeated in the corner of the ground where 300 fans stood. On the pitch, their minds were drawn to San Mamés or El Madrigal, clinging to a hope they couldn’t see. This time, though, there was no miracle,...
The strugglers’ new manager felt his job would be an emotional one as well as a tactical one – and his players delivered on all fronts at RiazorPepe Mel packed a bag, climbed behind the wheel and headed north from Seville, taking his staff and a little happiness with him. He did not stop until the village of Villafranca del Bierzo, León: 744km gone, 222km to go. It was dark, late and they still did not know if the journey was going to be worth it, ready to turn back if needs be. Unemployed since he left Betis in January 2016, Mel had published his third novel – about football and aimed at kids this time – but coaching is...