Luuk De Jong is a man for the big moment as Barça’s rivals found out to their cost on SundayNico González had in his hand a piece of paper. Time was running out and unless they could do something about this – and fast – Barcelona were going to lose a Catalan derby at Cornellá for the first time in La Liga. It had taken them only 73 seconds to score one, but in 73 minutes they hadn’t got a second. Worse, Espanyol had. Sergi Darder curled in a gorgeous equaliser and then Raúl de Tomás put them ahead, meditating cross-legged on the grass ignoring the madness all around him. Xavi Hernández, though, had a plan, written down and sent...
The title candidates who just won’t let go couldn’t quite hold on either, leaving Madrid six points clear on topIvan Rakitic had the ball in his hands and Sevilla’s fate in them too, or at least that’s how it felt. On moments like this titles turn, so it goes. They had spent the last two months hanging in there, the team still standing even as players were falling, clinging on for a chance like this. But time was running out on the first day of the rest of their season, the opportunity they had waited for untaken and slipping away again. Until suddenly, almost out of nothing, it was given back. All they now had to do was score a...
Álvaro Cervera, lauded by fans as the club’s greatest ever manager, has moved on with the club struggling for survivalÁlvaro Cervera had the look. He also had the T-shirts, the slogan and even the sign, a symbol all of his own. Not for him a bat beamed across the sky but a pair of stylised yellow specs, like some sort of short-sighted superman. Which he kind of was and always will be now, even for those who accepted it was time to let go: a cult figure in Cádiz, city of carnival and comedy. This great counter-cultural anti-hero who changed them and let them change him too, if maybe not quite enough in the end. ‘Mr Glasses’, Salvi Sánchez called...
Like Palace four seasons ago, Getafe began with seven defeats before a motivational video and returning hero led a revivalGiovanni Trapattoni carried a battle of holy water with him, blessed by the sister who actually was his sister. In 2009 the Espanyol manager Mauricio Pochettino hiked to Montserrat to visit the black virgin, enlisting her help in avoiding relegation, salvation delivered soon after. And Raúl Madero, the Argentinian national team doctor, twice visited the wailing wall. The first time, before the 1986 World Cup, he asked for them to be champions; when he went back four years later, he thought that would be pushing it, so requested runners-up. True story, and when it comes to football you’ll try anything. Sometimes...
Diego Simeone’s side looked alarmingly like a team who have lost their identity in a bloodless 2-0 defeat at Real MadridOn Sunday night at the Santiago Bernabéu, Atlético Madrid pulled off a spectacular smash-and-grab 2-0 victory against Real Madrid. Both Atlético goals came from surgical counterattacks, after being forced to soak up long spells of pressure. Despite playing most of the game on the front foot and having the majority of the chances, Real were undone by customary defensive lapses and a curious lack of intensity in key moments of the game.Sounds pretty plausible, right? And to be fair, that’s almost what happened. As the particularly observant among you will have noticed, I just swapped the names of the two...