Real Madrid's run ends while Barcelona shoot themselves in the foot
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Version 0 of 1. First Valencia laid on a guard of honour for Real Madrid, then they laid into them. 2015 began with a bang and a crash. It also began in celebration, and another glimpse that a fourth power may be re-emerging in Spain. New owners, new players, new manager, new atmosphere, Valencia are on their way back: the team that defeated champions Atlético Madrid and were unfortunate to lose to Barcelona in the 93rd minute began the new year by ending Madrid’s run of 22 consecutive wins, going back almost four months. When Nicolás Otamendi’s thumping header clinched a 2-1 victory, they roared inside Mestalla. An hour later, they were still roaring outside Mestalla, thousands gathered long after the game had ended. A state of optimism has been declared. The day before the game, 5,000 fans had turned up at Valencia’s Paterna training ground and the day before that 8,000 had come to the presentation of Enzo Pérez, whose arrival for €25m from Benfica takes Valencia’s spending under their new owner Peter Lim over €100m. This time there was real hope. Desire, too. A banner at Paterna declared: “For the mothers that gave birth to you, beat Madrid!”, which they did for the first time in five years at home. This morning, the headline in Super Deporte lauds: “The mothers that gave birth to you!” Before the game Valencia had been obliged to line up to applaud Madrid onto the pitch for having recently won the Club World Cup. Fans weren’t happy – if there is a team they dislike, it is Madrid – and up in the stands, some turned their backs and whistled. But the emotional management at Mestalla has been clever and here was another example. “Of course it doesn’t bother us,” the manager Nuno Espírito Santo had insisted, “the best way to recognise your own merits is to recognise those of others.” Almost immediately afterwards, Valencia’s Under-12s came out, recent winners of the Arona tournament, and walked the same guard of honour. Madrid’s moment had been just a moment, quickly replaced. The fans turned swiftly and applauded, chanting “Champions! Champions!” Besides, Enzo Pérez had promised: “We’ll applaud them but when the game starts it will be different.” As usual, Valencia came out flying. Usually, that requires them to get the first goal and kill the game off while their energy lasts. Instead, Cristiano Ronaldo opened the scoring with a penalty – for the fifth time this season – but Valencia didn’t fold. Madrid could not escape the organisation or intensity; Valencia played with three central defenders and two wing backs, one of two systems the manager said can be “useful” but still needs “perfecting”. Here, the organisation appeared near-perfect already. Madrid were not awful by any means, and they had chances in a game that was fast and exhilarating, that wore you out just watching it, but they did complete fewer passes than in any other match. Cristiano Ronaldo attempted just 13. Otamendi and Lucas Orban were everywhere, flying into tackles, closing every gap. “The key was not letting them play,” Nuno said, but that was not the whole story. If the first half had been bruising, packed with cards (seven of them, five for Valencia), and if the final minutes were tense, the second half had opened up and so had Valencia. The wingbacks were more wings than backs; José Gayá and Antonio Barragán combined for the equaliser. Then Otamendi got what would prove the winner. Over on the touchline, Nuno leapt and spun and shouted. “The best day?” he said afterwards, repeating a line he had used after Valencia beat Atlético. “I’m an optimist and I keep saying that I believe that the best day is in the future. This is just the start.” For Madrid, it was the end. The end of the run, anyway; the surprise was that it was not the end of their time on the top of the table. Coritiba, holders of the world record for consecutive wins, quickly put out a message. “Thanks Valencia,” it said. For Madrid there may be some concerns: they have not played as well without Luka Modric, even if they have kept winning, and the front three disappeared almost entirely, while some worry that the lack of rotation may cost them. But Ancelotti was calm as ever. “It had to happen sooner or later,” he said, voice barely audible over the chanting coming from beyond the walls, where Valencia fans were gathering to celebrate, chanting and bouncing up and down. “We weren’t singing before and nor are we going to throw in the towel now,” Sergio Ramos added. As it turned out, he was more right than he could have imagined; the pessimism passed in a matter of hours. When Real Madrid’s bus left Mestalla last night it nudged its way slowly through the thousands of fans that had gathered to cheer the team that had finally defeated them, before pulling out onto Avenida Suecia and heading towards Manises airport, where the players boarded the plane thinking that they had lost top spot in the league. But by the time they had got off at Barajas, reached Valdebebas and climbed into their cars to head home, turning on the radio to listen to the last few, dramatic minutes of the night’s final game, FC Barcelona had helpfully handed it back. For the first time since September, Madrid had been beaten. But for the first time since April 2011 Barcelona had been beaten too, in the same week. An own goal from Jordi Alba after ninety seconds – the fastest own goal in their history – saw them lose 1-0 to David Moyes’s Real Sociedad at Anoeta. Instead of climbing back to the top, they still trail Real Madrid, having played a game more. “It’s a lost opportunity,” Andrés Iniesta said. La Vanguardia called it “the road to hell.” They didn’t like where this is heading. Leo Messi, Neymar, Dani Alves, Gerard Piqué and Ivan Rakitic were all left on the bench. Messi, Neymar and Alves had all arrived back from Christmas just two days before. All of them came on in the second half but still there was no way through and nor did it ever really look like there would be, even if Moyes did admit that when the goal went in he turned to Billy McKinley and said: “We could do with the full time whistle now.” Sure, there were saves, and a couple of penalty shouts, but Barcelona did not play well. “Luis Enrique throws away three points,” complained the cover of Sport. “I didn’t want to risk them,” Luis Enrique said afterwards, as if they had just turned up late, unannounced. The decision was, in fact, his – on the grounds that they have the Copa América at the end of the season. Unlike, say, Javier Mascherano or Claudio Bravo. “What a pity,” lamented El Mundo Deportivo. Marca called it “suicide.” The cause of death: “Luis Enrique shot himself in the foot,” said AS. In fairness to Luis Enrique, once they had come back two days later than the rest, perhaps leaving them on the bench was logical, but he had insisted before the game that they were all “fresh and fit.” And anyway, here’s an idea: if it is a risk to play someone who has got back late, don’t decide to let your best players come back late in the first place. Equally, letting Messi come back late and not starting him in the first game in January is nothing new: Pep Guardiola did it four years in a row and Tata Martino did the same. But it’s a little different when you’re going away to Anoeta, where you have not won for five years; when Real Madrid have just unexpectedly handed you a rare chance to close the gap; and when leaving them out is just another indication of a much deeper problem; when for much of the season only Messi and Neymar have hidden how poorly your team is playing; when Barcelona have no identity and when know one knows what the system is except that the system is Messi. This was Barcelona’s 17th league game and their 17th different lineup. It is also a little different when the club is adrift at boardroom level and fractured socially – with football director Andoni Zubizaretta sacked; when after the game, the sporting director, so often the shield for his superiors, publicly points the finger at the president for the first time; when the current regime is getting less popular by the day; when this team has come off the back of a first trophyless season in five years; when there are new players who need to settle swiftly; when the manger had already claimed weeks ago it is “hunting season” and now the knifes are out more than ever before; and when it widens fault lines that are already opening up. On Monday morning Barcelona had a special open training session for kids to attend in celebration of Kings Day, when the three wise men supposedly reached Bethlehem carrying gold, frankincense and myrrh. Messi missed it. He had gastroenteritis, they said. Up in San Sebastián and down in Valencia, they were nursing sore heads. “It’s the happiest day since I have been here,” Moyes admitted, while El Diario Vasco called it a “magical night.” Nuno was trying to keep a lid on the euphoria. “I keep saying this, to the point of become a bore,” he insisted after Valencia’s victory. “If there are any celebrations, they will only be at the end.” Outside, the fans didn’t hear him. They were too busy celebrating. Talking points • Happy hogmanay. The opening weekend of 2015 was a special one for Scottish coaches. Sitting next to Nuno on the Valencia bench was his assistant Ian Cathro, while up in San Sebastián, Real Sociedad’s win over Barcelona means they have now beaten Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid and Barcelona ... (plus Oviedo, of course). Those three victories have come under three different managers, the latest of them of David Moyes, whose Real Sociedad side have now scored in the opening three minutes three home games in a row. • Things could hardly have gone better for Atlético Madrid, for whom this was a nine-point weekend, drawing them to within a point of the top, and who in 24 hours welcomed 90,000 people and one icon into the stadium. The Kid is back at the Calderón. Fernando Torres was signed last week. On Saturday, he sat in the directors’ box at the Calderón as Atlético defeated Levante 3-1, with Antoine Griezmann scoring twice and celebrating by doing the archer gesture that Torres always did in homage of Kiko (whose No19 shirt he has taken). And then on Sunday he was presented in the same stadium ... and over 40,00 turned up to welcome him home. “One day you’ll have to tell me what I have done to deserve this,” he said, holding the mic. • The first half of Elche-Villarreal: fun. • There is a box on Getafe’s web site which says “get your tickets here.” When you click on it takes you to a new page ... which is empty. How sadly appropriate. • Speaking of Getafe, it’s not unusual to have to get rid of someone because of your financial crisis. But when that someone is your manager, you know something is seriously wrong. • New year, same Eibar. They just keep on keeping on. • Sevilla beat Celta. Somehow. * Málaga lost for only the third time in 11 … and against Almería. Erm, yeah, sorry about that … Results: Atletico 3-1 Levante, Sevilla 1-0 Celta, Elche 2-2 Villarreal, Deportivo 1-0 Athletic, Málaga 1-2 Almería, Getafe 1-2 Rayo, Valencia 2-1 Madrid, Espanyol 1-2 Eibar, Real Sociedad 1-0 Barcelona Monday night: Córdoba v Granada. |