Sevilla are this season’s La Liga crisis club but perhaps a last-gasp penalty at Cádiz can turn their fortunes aroundIvan Rakitic seemed to be trying not to look up and he wasn’t listening either, not when Alejandro Hernández Hernández came for one of those pointless pep talks referees like so much. He’d taken penalties before, thank you very much. And even if his mother-in-law once sent him a picture of a labrador with a ball at its paws and the message, “your dog takes them better than you”, he’s not bad either: he had done it in the derby, rolled in at Madrid to keep Sevilla in the title race, and is the only player to be put on the...
With Mikel Oyarzabal, out for so long, capping an emphatic victory against Athletic Club it was a special night at Anoeta“There is not one fan going home with a single ‘but’ tonight,” Real Sociedad forward Takefusa Kubo said. There were plenty not going home at all, not yet. Late Saturday in San Sebastian and if it was finally quiet inside Anoeta, although you swore some of those seats still hadn’t stopped shaking, outside the band played on and the bars kept serving. “This smile will last at least til tomorrow,” Imanol Alguacil, the manager, beamed. 24 hours earlier, he had called the Basque derby the most important match of the year, every year, and now his team had just won...
It was Andorra v Oviedo again, but this time Quique Setién wasn’t watching. He was busy and had better things to doQuique Setién started the season at Real Oviedo, where the football ground is overlooked by a 30-metre Jesus Christ. He hadn’t come to coach and had no intention of going anywhere else to do so either. Everyone knows there are cows in his tiny hometown of Liencres, human population 3,537; what fewer know is that there is a club there too and as far as the former Barcelona boss was concerned, Marina Sport Under-19s were his team now, the only place he wanted to be. The professional game was best left to other people, one man in particular, so...
The celebrity referee who handed out 17 cards in the Argentina-Netherlands quarter-final came home and went one betterBarcelona and Espanyol were a quarter of the way into their first game for more than 50 days, La Liga back at last, when referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz was suddenly set off. Urgently heading across the pitch wearing a determined look, triggered by what he heard or perhaps remembering something really important he had to do, he sprinted straight at Xavi Hernández, who was all in black and shouting. This was only ending one way. Pulling up pitchside, he grabbed Barça’s coach. And then he kissed him, whispering in his ear. “He said he was happy to see me,” Xavi revealed later. “And...
With four sendings-off, a comical own goal and a belting late equaliser from Nemanja Gudelj, the game lived up to its billing“Well, this is a derby,” Real Betis’s Edgar González was saying, but it was hard not to be drawn to the pitch behind him where opponent Nemanja Gudelj was pacing about shaking his head. At the final whistle, the Sevilla defender had covered his face with his hands and just stood doubled over, elbows on knees. Ivan Rakitic approached and they went through it once more, although it was a wonder they could hear anything. Next was Jesús Navas, the pair picking over the moment a vital victory slipped away. Now, waiting near the touchline for his turn to...