Six teams went into the final game within two points of each other and the last relegation place. There was drama and tears“Life hits you hard sometimes; this is one of those times,” Papa Pezzolano said when at last it was over and it was confirmed that his team was the one heading to the second division, hope eventually extinguished in the 100th minute of the final day of the longest season. “The dressing room is destroyed,” the Real Valladolid coach admitted as his voice cracked and the tears came. Across the way, that could have been meant literally; in there, the beers were open and Getafe’s players, survival secured, were climbing on tables and leaping about, crashing into each...
One last game remains for Spezia and Verona, who must now meet in the first Serie A relegation playoff for 18 yearsThe Serie A season was over until it wasn’t, a goal in the 91st minute at the Stadio Olimpico ensuring that we get one more game yet. Paulo Dybala’s penalty, scored just before 11pm local time, secured Europa League football for Roma but condemned opponents Spezia to a relegation playoff. They must defend their top-flight status against Verona next weekend after finishing level in 18th place.Not since 2005 has a season ended this way. Serie A had done away with playoffs and playouts, using head-to-head records as a tie-breaker instead. Their reintroduction was announced last summer, to be used...
The Europa League final between Sevilla and Roma lasted 146 minutes. It felt longer, but no one got their money’s worthJosé Mourinho, perhaps, is a pleasure better remembered than experienced. We chuckled at him wearing a wire, at him laying into Daniel Levy with the scorn that only he can muster, progressing through a semi-final with an xG of 0.03. Classic José, we said with a smile. Still fighting the bad fight. Still harrumphing and provoking and spoiling. And then you actually watch his Roma play – and, as it turned out, lose. And that is dreadful.For Roma, no doubt, the ends would have justified the means. Had they won, this would have been their greatest international success and that...
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...
Another grim episode in Spain unfolded on Sunday night, but in confronting this, there is hope that it is inescapable nowThis Sunday, for the first time in 1,285 games as a coach and 47 years in football, Carlo Ancelotti refused to talk about the game. He had just seen Real Madrid lose 1-0 to Valencia but, standing in the cramped, narrow tunnel that leads to the Mestalla dressing room where he said his best player sat “angry and sad”, he didn’t care about that and couldn’t comprehend anyone else caring either. So when the standard post-match interview began with the standard post-match question, an enquiry as to his thoughts on another defeat, he decided that, actually, no, this wasn’t going...