Anxious to sample some traditional Spanish culture while taking in a La Liga match years ago, Football Daily and some friends decamped to Gran Alicant. As we prepared to leave a quaint bodega (the Dick Turpin), where we’d been sampling the local hooch (Guinness), to travel to the nearby stadium, an elderly local resident with an unmistakable mackem accent informed us that the Elche home game to which we were heading was not being played until the following evening. It had fallen victim to Spanish TV’s infuriating habit of rescheduling random top-flight matches with little or no notice or consideration for Johnny-come-latelys who might have travelled from afar to watch them.
We never did get to see Elche play in the flesh but did get to watch the current La Liga basement-dwellers give José Mourinho an almighty fright on TV on Tuesday night, as they went this close to snatching a point from Real Madrid. Allowed to spend 14 times more on players and coaching staff than their hosts at the Estadio Martínez Valero under La Liga rules, it was no surprise to see Real Madrid go 2-0 up as they appeared to be cruising towards a routine rout of their lowly opposition. However, a succession of missed chances (hello, Vinícius Júnior) followed by second-half sucker punches from Abiel Osorio and Fer Niño meant Mourinho was sweating as Elche approached the final seven minutes on the front foot, looking for an unlikely winner.
Sadly, there was no fairytale and Carlos Espí popped up with a late, late winner to break Elche hearts and dig his side out of one of several holes they have already found themselves in this season. While a balmy Tuesday night in Elche may not be the most glamorous of environments, not for the first, second, third, fourth or even 534th time in their history, Madrid found a way. It’s harder to know why but it’s easier to understand that there are matches that seem over but in the end, aren’t.
Matches where we have three, four, five chances to finish them but don’t. After failing to do so, it feels like we go from ease to losing control. With the changes I made in the end, I took all the risks.
We won but I could have lost.” Modest to a T, as ever, Mourinho will be hoping for a better performance from his team when they make the short trip to the Wanda Metropolitano to face their city rivals Atlético on Sunday (or Saturday, depending on the whims of broadcasters) before the international break. While the out-of-sorts Vinícius Jr did little on Tuesday night beyond convince Arsenal fans they may have dodged a very expensive summer bullet, he was one of three Madrid stars who refused to show off T-shirts showing solidarity with the people of Ceuta that were handed to both sets of players as they made their way out on to the pitch before kick-off. Along with Kylian Mbappé and Ibrahima Konaté, Vinícius Jr chose not to show the slogan “Todos somos caballas” (“We are all mackerels”), in support of the Spanish exclave which was overwhelmed by the arrival of 80,000 migrants, mostly from Morocco, in recent months.
Subsequently lambasted in some quarters for being too supportive of the migrants and not supportive enough of the citizens of Ceuta, it was an awkward situation where the Madrid players were put on the spot and simply couldn’t do right for doing wrong. Join Niall McVeigh at 8pm (BST) for a red-hot Bigger Vase clockwatch, while Will Unwin will be on deck at the same time for Rumblews Cup goal updates. That was the moment” – as part of the FA’s forthcoming feature ‘Reflections: England’s World Cup Journey’, Thomas Tuchel was recently interviewed by Daniel Sturridge about the aftermath of England’s famous 3-2 win over Mexico at the Azteca, and made a bizarre admission about his eating habits while showing an alarming misunderstanding of the body’s digestive system.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
