A 2-2 draw at Valencia ensured Luis García’s team will not be among several sides fighting for La Liga survival on the final dayWhen the end came, Espanyol’s captain pulled his shirt over his face and sobbed, a member of staff taking him gently by the arm and guiding him off the Mestalla pitch and out of the first division. “We didn’t deserve it to end like this,” Sergi Darder had said, which was just about all he had been able to say; three men needed to compose him and carry him towards the camera where, exposed, his voice cracked and his eyes stung. That and “sorry”, plus a promise to be back that he knew was as hard to...
After Saturday’s incident involving Iñaki Williams, there is still a lingering sense that racism is not being taken seriously enoughIñaki Williams had just begun the long walk to the bench when he heard something. There were 20 minutes left and Athletic Bilbao were drawing 1-1 at Espanyol, but that didn’t matter much any more. He was heading towards where Iker Muniain was about to take corner, yet his mind was elsewhere now. Barely a metre from Muniain as he ran up and bent the ball into the box, the pair crossing paths, his attention was drawn to the stands instead. Williams slowed slightly, head turned, hearing it more clearly now. He couldn’t tell how many, but it was too many....
Abelardo’s side sense a ‘turning point’ in their season. It needs to be: no team has survived on fewer than 12 points at halfway“Maybe I’m a masochist,” Abelardo Fernández had said and maybe that explains everything: it explains why they called and why he came; it might even explain why this could just work. That, at least, is the hope and at least there is hope now. The noise had just about died down, supporters heading home happy, when Espanyol’s new coach appeared, their third in half a season. It was almost midnight, cold outside, and his throat was raw but he was smiling. “You have a bad time of it, you suffer, but you enjoy it,” he admitted, “and...
The clash of the bottom two in La Liga saw Javier Aguirre’s resurgent side overcome Espanyol – and Storm Fabien “This is the game,” Pablo Machín said but things weren’t going as planned, his weekend beginning badly and ending worse. Storm Fabien hit Spain, blowing through at 100km an hour, and east of Madrid an overhead cable came down, leaving him and his team trapped inside a train. Meanwhile, about the same time Espanyol were stuck in Guadalajara, pleading in vain for the league to delay the following morning’s kick off, Machín’s opponent was sitting with his feet up in front of the telly at home, the day’s problems slipping away. Which wasn’t the way Leganés manager Javier Aguirre planned...
This weekend Messi did something unusual: he did something he hasn’t done before, exceeding his own expectationsSunday morning and military machines rolled down the Castellana, armoured vehicles on the move. Snipers stood on roofs and helicopters circled. Something big was happening. “We’ll know how it feels,” Marca said, which they wouldn’t of course, but like everyone else they hoped to find out. And, like everyone else, they were trying. Politicians packed the place, more even than usual, and people arrived from everywhere, papers dedicating dozens of pages. Florentino Pérez left Real Madrid’s match at Huesca early to be there and the best player in the world was due as soon as he’d finished, his club mates too. The third best...