The Spanish playmaker got the winner against Fiorentina, but Lazio needed a fortunate bounce and a questionable penalty call to keep Juventus in their sights“It’s alive!” The front page of Sunday’s Corriere dello Sport shrieked out like Doctor Frankenstein at the awakening of his Creature. As late as 10pm the previous evening, it had seemed that one of the most compelling Serie A title races in years was coming to a premature end. And then, with a jolt, it wasn’t.The newspaper gave credit to a Spanish sorcerer. Luis Alberto – Il Mago, as they know him in Rome – had scored the winning goal as Lazio came from behind to beat Fiorentina, dragging his team back to within four points...
Inter keep playing good football but are unable to stop throwing away matches from winning positionsSix goals, a red card, two penalties and an early contender for miss of the century. Not bad for the warm-up act. Wednesday’s main event in Serie A was Atalanta-Lazio, a meeting of two teams that have produced some of the finest footballing symphonies on the peninsula. But first on stage, in the ‘early’ 7.30pm slot, were the chaotic chords of Inter-Sassuolo.It was the sort of tune that Antonio Conte never wanted to hear at San Siro. After becoming the Inter manager last summer, one of his first acts was to stop the club’s anthem, Amala, from being played before home games. The song is...
Out came the accusations and the warriors. After months away, a pandemic, it’s back, alrightOn the weekend that Spain moved into the “new normal”, Real Madrid returned to the top of the table and everyone got back to what they missed most: the referees. On Sunday the state of alarm finally ended after 14 long weeks and a more traditional moral panic reappeared in its place. That, and some stuff that was more fun and less noticed. Like a golito from Nolito, the emergency striker Celta signed to replace an injured goalkeeper; a ridiculous golazo from Valencia’s Gonçalo Guedes; another from Leganés’s Óscar Rodriguez; and no goals at all from Barcelona. Not least because when Lionel Messi called, Sevilla stuck...
A seismic reality faces not just the club but the Bundesliga too, of which the northerners have been such a constantHe has always looked bright as the dark closed in on Werder Bremen, stood up and pointed the way forward. This time was different. Usually a beacon of positivity – a quality that has seen the club stick with him long after many of their counterparts would have happily jettisoned him – Florian Kohfeldt was deflated, the bottom of his deep well of optimism finally visible. In the minutes following Werder’s 3-1 defeat at Mainz, the head coach said he felt “empty”. In a must-win game they had started well, stumbled and then collapsed in an all-too-familiar fashion. They had...
On Indalecio Ojanguren street are two blocks of flats that tower over Ipurua, meaning fans still got to watch the actionA small boy was waiting for the two buses carrying Athletic Club’s players as they turned the corner and edged up the hill towards Ipurua. When they pulled over outside, he clambered down from a grass bank and on to his dad’s shoulders for a glimpse of his idols that neither he nor anyone else was going to get inside. Just across the road, a couple of people had gathered by the gravel bowling court sheltered under the AP8 motorway as it thunders past the ground. And down at Bar Terraza, where framed Eibar shirts line the wall, four people...