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...
Diego Simeone’s side retain faint hopes of winning La Liga but both teams seem more concerned with European ambitions when they meet at the BernabéuOn the eve of the Madrid derby Zinedine Zidane was asked to whom the game mattered more. “Both,” he said, but many wondered if the right answer was actually “Neither”. The word repeated most in the build-up to this match is “decaffeinated”. These city rivals have faced each other in three finals over the last five seasons – two European Cups, one Copa del Rey – and met in last year’s Champions League semi-final too. Both have also won La Liga and they have European quarter-finals of their own next week, so it is understandable that...
A goalless night at San Siro boosted rivals from the capital and leaves Milan almost certain to miss the Champions League again and at risk of upheaval on and off the pitchEven at 6.30pm on a wet Wednesday, the derby still felt like The Derby. A crowd of 78,000 fans at San Siro, vast choreographies on both Curve, the usual procession of celebrities in tailored coats and designer glasses. In a week when Italy’s two remaining Champions League representatives endured three-goal defeats, the only question that mattered in Milan was which of this city’s leading clubs would get a shot at Barcelona or Real Madrid next year.This was not technically a European playoff, though even some Milan players described it...
Max Rushden and co discuss Dele Alli, the wonder of Zlatan, Premier League survival and death by nostalgia Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts,Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Paul MacInnes and Lars Sivertsen for a look back on all things football over the Easter weekend. Continue reading...
Sevilla had been agonisingly close to beating Barcelona but substitute Lionel Messi came on after an hour to score an equaliser in the dying minutesIt took FC Barcelona 358 days to lose their record and 54 seconds to get it back again. Saturday night, week 30 in La Liga and Sevilla were 2-0 up at the Sánchez Pizjuán, but it could have been three, four or five. They had overrun their opponents and although they were exhausted they didn’t have long to hang on now. On the touchline, the fourth official was fiddling with the board; high above him, the scoreboard crept beyond 87 minutes, and there would only be two more added. Alongside the time were two names: goalscorers...