Imanol Alguacil’s side look set for the Champions League after beating Madrid, with thanks owed to one player in particularA little after the clock struck 12 on the night when David Silva, 37, ran 10 kilometres, completed more passes, won more possession, made more tackles, created more chances and provided more assists than anyone else; the delirious, noisy night when everybody bounced about and he led his team – the fifth of a career that began 19 years ago and isn’t ending any time soon – to victory over the European champions and the cusp of a Champions League place for the first time in a decade, his manager was asked what exactly they were giving him up in San...
Football is a fight for club’s legendary manager so who better to install the ‘balls, blood and mentality’ they need to survive?“I couldn’t sit at home with my arms crossed,” José Bordalás said, and so there he was standing in the pouring rain, soaked and angry again, glasses no good to him now. Sunday afternoon and the coach who took Getafe to primera in the first place had returned on a rescue mission to keep them there, swapping his sofa for the sideline. Where, officially just 27 hours into the job, he watched drenched as his team – well, it is now – lost 1-0 to Espanyol, their third consecutive defeat and a sixth game without winning dropping them deeper...
Former player Bryan Gil helped to secure a 2-0 win for Sevilla that kept Valencia in the bottom three and in desperate troubleAt the end of the tunnel, Bryan Gil found a quiet corner to talk to old friends, lingering by the dressing room door, but there wasn’t much he could say that would help now. The last time he had been here, a year ago, he and his Valencia teammates had gathered on the stadium balcony overlooking Avenida Suecia, leaping about and spraying champagne everywhere. That night, thousands gathered below, celebrating reaching the Cup final and singing for him to stay. This time, late on Sunday night, they were out there again; though he had changed team and they...
Victory over Madrid in the clásico leaves Barça 12 points clear. It will have been a different kind of success this seasonFranck Kessié hasn’t always been in the right place at the right time but on Sunday night at 10.53pm he was exactly where he needed to be, and when. One morning, soon after arriving at Milan, the Ivorian pulled into Milanello and parked in the space reserved for the big boss. Stopped by security, told he couldn’t go there because that was the president’s spot, he replied: “I am the president.” It fit somehow and the title stuck. That day he became The President; now, five years on, he became President, King, Emperor, anything he likes. Above all, he...
La Liga’s giants were briefly on the same page but the case against Barça has injected a level of paranoia into this title raceThe battle for the glorious past will be fought in the inglorious present. And it will be fought with heavily edited Twitter videos. Early last week Real Madrid TV released what can only be described as an attack video, aimed at the former La Liga referee José María Enriquez Negreira. If this seems a little extreme, it is worth noting this was in fact a follow-up, sequel to Real Madrid TV’s previous attack video aimed at referee Carlos Clos Gómez, now head of La Liga VAR.There have been grander, starrier, more knife-edge meetings between Barcelona and Real...