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“FOotbal is so strange, he can make us happy when Sunday comes,” Javi Ray said. For the first time, Club Deportivo Arenteiro were traveling to Riazor, twice the size of their town, to face Deportivo de la Coruña, an O Corbalino side playing in the Galician regional league six years ago.
Without a goalkeeper. Diego Garcia and Manu Figueroa injured; Borrowing from Pablo Bree’s opponents, he applied one of those clauses; And the emergency signing, Pablo Pican, failed, leaving them with no choice but to stick the goalie coach in the nets, waiting for an unexpected hero to happen.
Diego Rivas was born in the province of Coruña and dreamed of being in goal at Riazor, if not, given the chance after it was over. He played for Deportivo’s B team at the start of his career, joining around a dozen clubs including Lugo, Eibar and Auckland City before ending it with a promotion to nearby Racing Ferrol. A fan still, he cried when Depor took him down. Now, a year after retiring, starting a new career in coaching, he is registered as a squad member until the end of the season, in front of 28,293 people, going where he always wanted to play. Against the league leaders who were unbeaten in 15 and had won five in a row.
So guess who, despite going 2-0 down, kept his side alive and headed in a 94th-minute corner to score the equalizer this weekend? What happened next will shock you. Actually, it really might be. Because, no, for all the build-up, it wasn’t Rivas. Not exactly – that would be silly, even for football – but almost. At the last minute he went up and the ball dropped for him, but his shot sliced, rather than the perfect assist, for another Deportivo academy product, Manuel Romay, to score the equaliser, all holding up apologetic hands. . He had made them happy, right.
It was quite weird, a great weekend out there, where it felt like what was going to happen in the first division, a kind of inevitability to it all. Even a final, massively stuck many matches may haveLeaving the feeling that everything is over with five weeks left.
It was a week when Real Madrid were Real Madrid without him, as a starting XI featuring Eder Militao, Brahim Diaz, Joselu Matto, Dani Ceballos, Fran Garcia, Kepa Arrizabalaga and Arder Guler beat Real Sociedad 1-0. The latter gets the target. That puts them 13 points clear at the top, their title de facto ever since Defeated Girona And very much theirs since last week Classico One step closer. The week of the Seville derby draw – that’s now four in a row – Alaves progressed with a third consecutive home win, as Luis García gave a rest until the “dawn” to a team whose job was unexpectedly short-lived survival. Don’t let it get messy, and Las Palmas lost for the sixth week in a row.
It was as it should be. Girona beat Las Palmas, leaves Michael’s side 13 points clear of fifth place with 15 points in the game, a Champions League spot No achievement should be looked down upon Because that’s not their title Began to believe And it’s in their hands all season now. No team outside of Madrid, Barcelona or Atlético has more points after 33 weeks, and Atlético Madrid are the teams to join Girona there after completing a good season.
According to Rodrigo de Paul they did anyway. He indicated on Monday that they have reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League and the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey, qualified for the Club World Cup and still have a Champions League place within their reach. His words didn’t go down well, but at least his goal opened the scoring against Athletic, the only team that can still catch him. Angel Correa from Coke Pass got a beautiful second in the 3-1 win.
Six points and the head-to-head clear, Atlético did it again. Next year they will be in the competition for the 11th season in a row – every year Diego Simeone has had a full campaign at the club, uninterrupted from 2014 to 2025, having gone just three times previously: 1996-97, 2008-09 and 2009-10. It’s a measure of how far they’ve come, the transformation, the fourth could be seen as a disappointment, but it is. Not least because that transformation changes everywhere, including expectation and reality. Atlético’s salary cap this year is €303m; Less than half of Madrid, true, but more than anyone else, including Barcelona, twice the size, three times the athleticism of Sevilla or Real Sociedad. SixTimes of Girona. This is not a team that should be out of the title race by Christmas.
It borders on confusing. Atlético’s 15th home win on Saturday night: they’ve only been beaten there once. While Athletic won the Copa del Rey at the Metropolitano, it was their first defeat in any competition in 28 years. Although home form are title-winners, the only team to beat Real Madrid – twice, In the league And Cup – and drew Bernabeu, which makes it hard to take the fall and it’s like relegation. There, they have won just five of 18, losing eight. Things they should be good at, they’re not: less Atletico More than ever, Atlético conceded 68 goals in all competitions, conceding at least one in 12 matches. Their best defensive midfielder, Axel Witsel.
They are 20 Points from the top. Antoine Griezmann, perhaps the best player in Spain until Christmas, Foot injury. The ghost of Alvaro Morata has returned. Only when he appears to be strongLooking like a haunted man again, more offside than on, every chance he gets not to take another injury: 13 goals in 20 league games to one in the next 13, five in his first four European games to none in the next six.
To accept it as a good season – even a good one – sticks in the throat. Champions League qualification is no longer the scope of their ambition; That’s what they do. And what do fans deserve to ask for? Even if they let the league go, there was hope and it hurt. In the cup, they knocked out Madrid; Athletic beat Barcelona too, but the chance was wasted, conceding four at San Mames. In Europe, they had a chance to reach the quarter-finals after seven years and squandered it: Inter were beaten on penalties; Regardless First stage victory And the second tier leader, Dortmund, was not the team everyone wanted.
Now they try again. As for athletic, Cup winners And almost certain to get fifth place, Having the season of his life, the Europa League final is at San Mames next season, which could be delicious. Real Sociedad joins them and the only thing that is really open five weeks from the finish line, three teams fight for the final European slot: Betis (49 points), Valencia (47) and Villarreal (45), among whom Alex Baena produces three assists and This is insanity As he defeated Rayo.
And for all that Madrid went to La Real, Athletic went to Atlético and there was a Seville derby, the big game of the weekend could be Cadiz against Mallorca by six-and-a-half-pointers. Except that Must have been, the last surviving train to leave the bay without boarding Cádiz. “We talked a lot when it comes down to it, guys forget to play; We were scared,” Mauricio Pellegrino said after the 1-1 draw left Mallorca six points clear, five from Celta. “We are tired,” said striker Chris Ramos.
A quick guide
La Liga results
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Real Sociedad 0-1 Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid 3-1 Athletic Bilbao, Alaves 3-0 Celta Vigo, Almeria 1-3 Getafe, Las Palmas 0-2 Girona, Real Betis 1-1 Sevilla, Villarreal 3-0 Granada 3- 0 Osasuna, Cadiz 1-1 Real Mallorca
If they’re on the brink, Almeria are gone, mathematically the worst team ever relegated after a 3-1 defeat to Getafe. They slipped to the bottom of the table in week five and have never left. It took him 29 weeks to win. Thirty-three weeks into the second-worst season in history, they are yet to win at home, have just 14 points and a single victory. Even Sporting Gijon, the team with the fewest points at 13, wasn’t too bad.
Or, weirdly, have Almeria is. This is the team that scored two in Madrid, two in Barcelona and two in Girona, and drew 2-2 against Atlético, Sevilla and Valencia. But this is a team that has spent more than €50m, second only to Madrid, allowing 69 goals through Vicente Moreno, Alberto Lasarte, Gaizka Garitano and Pepe Mel. “When that happens, you go down,” Mel said. “We knew it was coming: we tried to stop it, but it wasn’t.”
Granada are also aware but while they are still 10 points from safety, two wins and a draw in three games gives them a small glimmer of hope. “We were not dead; We were alive, we needed a blood transfusion, new coach Jose Ramon Sandoval said. “The past is the past, we don’t know the future, we have to enjoy the present.” Their second goal in a 3-0 win over Osasuna this weekend was scored by Myrto Uzuni, who has been unable to train, can hardly walk, needs injections to get through the game and says he is playing “on one leg”. The goalkeeper coach wasn’t going for a corner in the 94th minute, but it was something. “It is late, but we will believe until the end,” he said. “This is football.”
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