As firefighters got to work on the damaged roof of Celta Vigo's Balaidos stadium which caused the postponement of Sunday's league match against Real Madrid, Celta's fans prepared to leave for the six-hour, 600 kilometre trip to Vitoria-Gasteiz, capital of the Basque Country.
Madrid remain furious that the game has been postponed – the first in Spain to be postponed since 2006 – and feared that the two extra league fixtures they now need to play will hamper their chances of winning the Primera Liga and retaining the Uefa Champions League. At least they do not need to worry about the Copa del Rey and a midweek game this week, for Celta eliminated them in the last eight last month.
Celta are providing their fans free transport to their biggest game in years, Wednesday’s semi-final second leg of the Copa del Rey, against Alaves. The first leg at a rainy Balaidos finished goalless, and both teams, who are comfortable in mid-table, are giving the utmost importance to the game which is a 19,800 sell-out. For Alaves, it is their most important game since the epic 2001 Uefa Cup final when they lost to Liverpool 5-4.
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It is a rare chance for both to reach a cup final which has been dominated by Barcelona and Spain’s biggest clubs in recent years. Not since Getafe reached consecutive finals in 2007 and 2008 have a club outside Spain’s biggest five reached the final, though fans of Real Zaragoza and Espanyol will state that their greatest moment so far this century was winning the Copa del Rey.
Manchester United’s Ander Herrera is a Zaragoza fan and maintains that their 3-2 victory over Real Madrid in the 2004 final was his greatest thrill as a supporter.
The Copa del Rey can still provide those moments, but there have not been enough of them in recent years, with Barca winning the cup four times in the last eight years and beaten finalists on two other occasions.
Celta, who have never won a trophy, reached the final in 1948, 1994 and 2001. No team has reached so many finals without taking the trophy home.
Celta also made the semi-finals last year after knocking out Atletico Madrid. Alaves, who have also never won a major trophy, have never gone beyond the semi-finals. The winners will play the winners of the Barcelona v Atletico Madrid tie.
Alaves were also not happy that the Celta v Madrid game was postponed, for it allowed the Galicians more recovery and preparation time. Alaves rested players for their most recent game at Sporting Gijon, winning 4-2.
They have won as many games on the road as Atletico in the league. Their first game back in the top flight was against Atletico, when they surprised many by holding Diego Simeone’s side. Their second away game was at Barcelona, where they stunned football by winning 2-1. They followed that up with a 2-0 victory at Villarreal, one of only two teams who have won at El Madrigal this season.
Alaves have been a success following promotion to the top flight for this season after a decade out of it. Survival was the aim for this season, but after a ruthless change of coaching personnel following their promotion, with the former Valencia defender Mauricio Pellegrino in charge, as well as a change in playing style, they are already 14 points clear of the relegation zone. And that after winning only two of their 10 home games so far with six drawn six and two lost.
It is in the cup where their season shows the most promise though after knocking out Gimnastic Taragona, Deportivo La Coruna and Alcorcon.
Though they went through against Depor on away goals, Alaves must win tonight if they are to go through. Then they have the small matter of their next home game at the weekend, against one of the sides they have already beaten away this term: Barcelona.
Espanyol on the rise
High hopes surrounded Espanyol at the start of the season following a takeover by a Chinese consortium.
The second biggest club in Barcelona, and the seventh-placed team in the all-time Spanish league table, have had to sell their best players for years. That changed last summer when they were able to appoint the former Al Ahli and Al Ain manager Quique Sanchez Flores and sign players of the calibre of Leo Baptistao, Martin Demichelis, Jose Reyes, plus Pablo Piatti and Javi Fuego from Valencia.
Not all have worked out and former Bayern Munich and Manchester City defender Demichelis left the club and returned to Malaga last month.
Espanyol started the season poorly, and were 18th after six matches following a 2-0 home defeat to Celta Vigo. Just 16,656 watched that match, well below half the capacity of Espanyol’s impressive 40,500-seater home at Estadi Cornella-El prat which opened in 2009. Crowds have been low all season, despite the team improving and rising to a season high of eighth after a 1-0 win at Malaga, a team that had only been defeated twice at home all season.
The previous week was even more impressive as they defeated second-placed Sevilla 3-1 at home in front of 22,974. That is still low for a club that averaged 26,000 only three years ago, but Espanyol fans have been stung so many times by the team’s performances in the past that their loyalty has been tested more than most.
Following a fifth-placed finish in Primera Liga in 2005, which resulted in Uefa Cup football the following season, where Espanyol reached the final against Sevilla at Hampden Park, they have finished between eighth and 15th in each of the subsequent 11 seasons. Their current run of form – three straight wins playing an increasingly effective 4-2-3-1 formation – sees them only three points off Villarreal in the sixth European spot and six off Real Sociedad in fifth. Friday night’s game against Real Sociedad represents a perfect opportunity to close that to three.
Only Real Madrid’s Toni Kroos has made more assists in the league than winger Piatti, while veteran goalkeeper Diego Lopez, 35, is reproducing the type of form which saw him installed as first-choice goalkeeper at Real Madrid, AC Milan, from where he arrived on a season-long loan, and Villarreal.
Javi Fuego is another veteran. At 33, the combative holding midfielder was injured too much at Valencia, but when fit most of the play went through him and he rarely misplaced a pass. He has been inspired at Espanyol, playing 90 minutes practically every week, the glue that binds the core of the team together and thwarts attacks. The only game he did not start was the first of the season, away at Sevilla. Espanyol lost 6-4.
There has been less of that lately and a lot more order as the team have started to fly under Flores.
Player of the week
■ Fernando Torres doesn't score many goals these days, but he comes to life at this point of the season, and the 32-year-old striker remains vital to Atletico Madrid. Torres scored both goals in the 2-0 win against Leganes which keeps Atletico fourth. Excellent as a substitute against Barcelona in the Copa del Rey last week, he remains a hero 16 years after his Atletico debut.
Games of the week
■ Real Madrid travel to 19th-placed Osasuna in the Basque Country, while Barcelona go to 12th-placed Alaves. The Pamplona side traditionally give a hellish reception to Madrid, while Alaves have already beaten Barcelona once this season in the league. Neither of the two giants can afford to lose.
What else?
■ The problem with Celta Vigo’s stadium highlighted an issue for several Spanish stadiums — they are not owned by the clubs which play in them but by the local municipality. Repairs tend to be piecemeal and clubs struggle to build lucrative executive facilities, for its hardly in the interests of the taxpayer to fund them. It shows why Italian giants Juventus rebuilt their Delli Alpi home having bought it back from Turin council.
Several of Spain’s top stadiums have not been properly redeveloped since the World Cup was staged in the country in 1982. The country’s stock of stadiums has slipped well behind England, Germany and France. Barcelona’s Camp Nou is showing its age with an ugly concrete exterior and vast redevelopments will start this year, but then Barca own their home. As do Real Madrid, who plan significant renovations, while Atletico should be fine in their new stadium, which is scheduled to open later this year. Valencia are in limbo, playing in the fantastic but ageing Mestalla while their half-built new home has laid idle since 2009.
When the local authority is serious about investing in a stadium, as in Bilbao with the magnificent new San Mames, it works. When they are not, as in Vigo, the fault lines can be exposed by mother nature. The club wanted to spend more money on the stadium during the current redevelopment, the council did not.
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