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The Guardian
5 days ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
Rayo Vallecano celebrate banner night: ‘25 years later, Europe sees us again'
Rayo Vallecano's fans rolled out the banner at 10.46pm on the last Saturday of the season and rolled it away again a minute later. There had been a sneak glimpse of the message they hoped to stretch across the one end of a ground that is actually an end and not just a wall at risk of falling down, but it wasn't quite time for the big reveal. For now all they wanted was to pull 40 metres of fabric into place, huge white letters proudly painted on a red background, ready for when, if, it actually was. They certainly didn't intend to tempt fate; it wasn't done yet, history still not made and, God knows, if there is a place where anything can go wrong, where football and life isn't always kind but is always lived, it is here. There was though a brief look before the banner was hidden again behind the back row – something about years, Europe and us – and they were close now. There were 10 minutes plus added time left and the side from the Independent People's Republic of Vallekas, the last of the neighbourhood teams, not just in the barrio but of the barrio, were on the verge of qualifying for the Conference League. All they had to do was beat Real Mallorca and it turned out they wouldn't even have to do that: they had taken 28 shots without scoring but it still didn't matter because up in Vitoria, the team that could take the place from them hadn't scored either, Osasuna losing 1-0 to Alavés. Or so they thought until, with two minutes to go and Rayo having had time and a two-goal cushion on their side, Osasuna equalised. A final day that hadn't had much drama until then, Rayo briefly in a Europa League place and never out of a Conference League position, suddenly had some, fate now being decided on some far away field, everything on hold, no control over their own destiny. The final whistle went in Vallecas at 10.59pm with the score 0-0; 352km away, though, Osasuna and Alavés were still playing and Rayo knew a goal up there and it would be over. Osasuna would be going to Europe in their place, the impossible dream exactly that. Some Rayo players slipped to the floor exhausted, just sitting there, unable to do anything more now: their 38 games were gone, the final minutes of someone else's would decide what they had been worth. Pacha Espino held up a finger on each hand: 1-1. A huddle gathered around Dani Cardenas who had the game on his phone and was tapping at the screen to get it to move. In the stands, supporters desperately tried to get their mobiles to work; the more of them tried, the fewer of them succeeded. Some, the sensible ones, had old-school transistor radios on the go. Down on the pitch, Rayo's coach Iñigo Pérez sought refuge in club captain Óscar Trejo. 'That was my selfishness: he gives me a feeling of security,' Pérez said later. 'We knew Osasuna had equalised. In that moment, you start to think of that classic footballing scenario where the team that does everything, that creates chances, that pushes, that has to win doesn't. In those seconds your heart sinks, imagining that the blow is on its way.' Thirty seconds passed, 60, then 90, ever more convinced the cruelty was coming. Until two minutes later the final whistle at last went on Alavés-Osasuna, the huddle broke, fists in the air, and Vallecas exploded, Pérez and Trejo skipping off arms around each other, running in delirious circles. 'I'll probably look back on the footage and feel embarrassed, but I enjoyed it,' Pérez said; they all did. They were only 15 seconds into the invasion when goalkeeper Augusto Batalla had given his shorts away. Fans did knee slides, or just lay on the grass. They cut themselves chunks of turf, burnt off bits of the net to keep and swung from the crossbar. They held their players, hugged and cried. Kids went up on shoulders, twirling scarfs. 'They deserve this, we all do,' Trejo said. 'This is a club made to suffer, where happiness is rare; on days like this you would pay to be a footballer.' Someone tried to heave Isi Palazón on his back and ended in a heap; others had better luck. At 11.02pm, from the back of the stands, the banner was raised, a proper look this time: '25 years later, Europe sees us again.' It's more than a quarter of a century, which is why when the chant went round declaring 'Vallecas entera se va de borrachera' – the whole of Vallecas is going on the piss – no one could blame them. Rayo have only ever played in Europe once before, in the 2001 Uefa Cup, when they reached the quarter-finals having been handed a place thanks to the fair play table. The only time they had actually qualified, they were banned from taking the place because the club was in administration. Yes, they had looked like they might get close under Andoni Iraola. But now, the man who was supposed to be his assistant at Bournemouth, yet who the UK home office said could not make a contribution to English football, had led Rayo there for the first time ever. It is a monumental achievement, made all the better, worth celebrating, by how monumentally out of place it all feels, way beyond the fact that no team in the first division has a lower income. So out of place in fact that you genuinely wonder if they will be allowed to play European football at their place. 'I don't need to run through the difficulties we have here,' Pérez said. 'All you have to do is take a little walk around to see it.' A walk around the stadium where there's no stand at one end, the pitch instead overlooked by flats – a Fede Valverde shot literally flew into someone's living room – and where concrete crumbles, pipes are rusty, and water comes in through the roof. Where 'water' flows across toilet floors but not out of the taps. Rayo have never won anything, or even played a final. Three weeks ago, thieves broke in and took everything. Police are looking for a man with a carpet, etc and so on. Actually, thieves really did break in and police are looking for a man with 60 pairs of boots. The players refused to train in protest because it was the third time it has happened. Staff have to pay for much of their own material and gym equipment has been chewed on by pests. This is the only club with no online ticket sales and they're not very good at telling anyone when the actual ticket offices will open, either. In the buildup to this game, hundreds of fans queued overnight, sleeping in the street, just in case they opened the next day. They didn't. There may be no owner – no man at all – more despised by fans than Rayo's. 'Sometimes you think: 'Bloody hell, how are we where we are with what we have?'' left winger Álvaro García said, and that was before they had got here, to Europe. 'Rayo don't have the normal things that other grounds and other clubs have.' As one visiting manager put it on his way outone day, this is a place that needs 'disinfecting'. And yet this, that same manager says, is special, real, the connection authentic, different, like something from another time. At the end of Saturday's win, Mallorca goalkeeper Dominik Greif said he had never experienced anything like it: 'Incredible: it is the dream of any player to have fans like this.' Real Betis 1-1 Valencia, Real Madrid 2-0 Real Sociedad, Leganés 3-0 Real Valladolid, Espanyol 2-0 Las Palmas, Alavés 1-1 Osasuna, Getafe 1-2 Celta Vigo, Rayo Vallecano 0-0 Mallorca, Girona 0-4 Atlético Madrid, Villarreal 4-2 Sevilla, Athletic Club 0-2 Barcelona There is something about Vallecas, Madrid's self-consciously working class, left-wing neighbourhood, and the team that represents it. When new players arrive, supporters take them around and show them. There is always a risk of romanticising poverty, justifying failures as character and fans really would like some basic amenities. Players would too. Yet at Rayo in the place of the resources and facilities many clubs take as standard, goes pride and identity, a different feel about the dressing room, the whole place, something that brings it all back to the start, some of the trappings and traps of professionalism stripped away. Something that makes a European qualification feel so special, matter so much; something, perhaps, that makes it possible in the first place, changing mindsets and attitudes. 'We're a poor club, a humble one,' Pérez said. 'But that first day, the players laid aside their shirts with their names and numbers on and left themselves entirely naked, giving absolutely everything they have. In professional football where everyone has a name, where they are in a good position economically, it's very hard to achieve that. And yet there has not been a single day when they have not done so. Those weaknesses we have bring many strengths.' The biggest party they had ever seen was earned the hard way, everyone forced to wait just a little longer before they could say it: Rayo Vallecano – Rayo Vallecano! – were on their way into Europe. First though they were on their way round the neighbourhood, a big, blue, suitably battered looking bus making its way down Avenida Albufera to collect the them. 'That's the first I had heard of it, but I will follow,' Pérez said. 'After the game I hugged Batalla. He was crying. And he said: 'Mister, tonight you will come out, tonight you will celebrate', because he knows I never do. I said: well, tomorrow I've got to think about the Conference League. But today, I'm enjoying this. I promise you. My granddad used to say to me effort equals reward. That's not always true, but I'm happy that tonight it is.'
The Citizen
15-05-2025
- Sport
- The Citizen
Real Madrid's Asencio indicted in underage sex video case
Asencio, 22, has established himself as a first-team regular in his breakthrough season at Madrid. Real Mallorca's Kosovo forward #07 Vedat Muriqi (left) vies for the ball with Real Madrid's Spanish defender #35 Raul Asencio during the Spanish league football match at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid, on Wednesday. Photo: Pierre-Philippe MARCOU / AFP Real Madrid defender Raul Asencio has been indicted along with three former youth players at the club, for alleged distribution of a sexual video involving a minor, according to Spanish reports on Wednesday. The judge at a Gran Canaria court is prosecuting 'four footballers' for their alleged involvement in 'the recording or non-consensual dissemination of videos of a sexual nature involving a minor and another young girl', aged 16 and 18 respectively at the time, read a court document seen by AFP. ALSO READ: Lula says Brazil has 'capable' coaches, reacting to Ancelotti hire The judge did not mention Asencio by name, nor specify which player is accused of which misdemeanour. The players are accused of 'disclosure of secrets without consent, and violation of privacy, distributing and sending videos to third parties without consent, capturing and using minors for pornographic purposes and possession of child pornography'. In September 2023, three unnamed players were arrested at Real Madrid's training centre following a complaint lodged by the mother of the 16-year-old girl who appears in the video. At the time, Spanish media reported that the main suspect, whose identity is unknown, had recorded a consensual sexual encounter with the young girl before sending the video to the other players without her consent. Asencio, 22, has established himself as a first-team regular in his breakthrough season at Madrid. Fans at various stadiums around Spain have jeered Asencio, with some Barcelona fans chanting 'Asencio, to jail' during the Clasico on Sunday. Real Madrid's Copa del Rey semi-final win at Real Sociedad in February was briefly paused by the referee after home fans chanted 'Asencio die'. ALSO READ: 'Not nice' to hear Alexander-Arnold booed by Liverpool fans: Robertson Meanwhile, Real Madrid snatched a last-gasp 2-1 win over Real Mallorca on Wednesday in La Liga to delay Barcelona's title celebrations. Los Blancos cut the gap on the Catalan giants to four points ahead of Barcelona's visit to neighbours Espanyol on Thursday, where they can wrap up the title with a victory.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Real Madrid's last-gasp winner against Mallorca delays Barcelona title party
This may have done no more than delay the inevitable and no one truly believes in a miracle, but suddenly there was a roar, a release, some life at the Santiago Bernabéu. The day before, Carlo Ancelotti had talked about the many wonderful comebacks over his years at Real Madrid, moments he said would never be forgotten, and now here in his penultimate game in this stadium was another, 20-year-old centre-back Jacobo Ramón scoring with the last kick of the game to defeat Real Mallorca and keep the league title alive for another day at least. It came late, very late on a grey, wet Wednesday night in front of perhaps 30,000 empty seats. It came with a manager whose departure was announced two days earlier and a dozen players missing, at the end of an evening that had felt empty for a long time. And ultimately it probably doesn't mean much to Madrid. But it meant the world to Ramón and for a moment everyone could forget how this season has gone, the defender's strike in the 95th minute overturning Martin Valjent's opener after just 11 minutes. Advertisement Related: Ten transfer targets for Premier League clubs from across Europe That leaves Madrid four points behind Barcelona, with two games to play and Barça with three. It also, in truth, leaves Madrid where they were, just waiting for the end. If Barcelona win against Espanyol on Thursday night that will come within 24 little hours. The statements will follow immediately: Madrid will at last officially announce what the Brazilian Football Confederation already has – that Ancelotti is the leaving for the only job in world football bigger, as coach of the Seleção. Then they will confirm another open secret: that Xabi Alonso is his replacement. And then attention will turn elsewhere, or it would do if it hadn't already. The league may be mathematically alive, but it was effectively concluded when Barcelona won the clásico on Sunday. That made this a strange occasion; for much of the night, it had felt like what it was: a game too far, hearts no longer in it. In the end though there was at least rebellion, pride, Madrid racking up more than 30 shots, and a final explosion. There were still tickets on sale at kick-off, for the first time all season, hope abandoned. From some of those that came there were whistles when the teams were read out. They were timid, no full-scale protest. And not everyone was there. Dani Carvajal, Éder Militão and David Alaba have missed much of the season. Antonio Rüdiger, suspended after throwing ice at the referee in the dying seconds of their Copa del Rey final defeat by Barcelona, had surgery. Eduardo Camavinga had torn a muscle three days earlier. And then came what you could be forgiven for thinking was a serious outbreak of season's-over-itis. Advertisement Lucas Vázquez and Vinícius Júnior were injured in the clásico. Rodrygo, who didn't play a minute, walked out for training on Tuesday morning and then walked back in again. On the morning of this game, Andriy Lunin pulled out. In the afternoon, so too did Brahim Díaz. Aurélien Tchouaméni was suspended. Madrid were left with 10 first-team players, and one of those is the strange case of Jesús Vallejo, the footballer who has been on the bench for 43 games and on the pitch for one, disastrous, 10-minute cameo. Here, he got on again and even provided the assist at death. No one could ever have imagined that, although the night could have started well when Arda Guler sent Endrick running right through the middle after just two minutes. He reached the edge of the area but, falling as he struck the ball having been given a slight push in the back by José Copete, the shot was saved by Leo Román. That was to be a recurring theme, once Mallorca took the lead. Dani Ceballos was unable to cut out a pass from Mateu Morey on the right and Valjent swung his left foot to send the ball past Thibaut Courtois. Madrid's reaction was timid at first and although it did gather pace, the shot count rising and Román providing to be a formidable barrier. He made saves from Jude Bellingham, Luka Modric, Kylian Mbappé and Fede Valverde in the first half and carried on the same way in the second, resisting until there was only quarter of an hour left. Then Mbappé found a way through Morey and Valjent with a combination of elegance and strength, then hit a superb near-post finish to put Madrid level. The French forward had underlined once again one of the great contradictions of this campaign: this was his 28th league goal, his 40th in all competitions yet few would call it an unqualified success. He had at least given them a glimpse of hope on the night, the chances increasing, the saves too. Madrid kept coming, an occasion made of this. Román kept saving, Valjent cleared one off the line, Gonzalo García missed a clear chance at the far post and then there was Ramón to complete one last remontada for old times' sake.
Al Bawaba
22-04-2025
- Sport
- Al Bawaba
Barcelona Predicted Lineup vs Mallorca – La Liga 2024-25
Barcelona is gearing up for a crucial La Liga clash against Real Mallorca tonight at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys, as they aim to edge closer to sealing the 2024-25 league title early. The Catalan giants head into the match riding high after a thrilling 4-3 victory over Celta Vigo, with the season entering its decisive phase. Meanwhile, Mallorca is enjoying a strong campaign, sitting seventh in the table—a Europa League qualification spot—giving them extra motivation to fight for a positive result. Match Details Kickoff: Tuesday, April 22, 2025, at 08:30 PM (GMT) Broadcast: Live on beIN Sports 3 HD with commentary from Hafiz Draji Barcelona's Expected Starting XI vs. Real Mallorca Goalkeeper: Wojciech Szczęsny Defense: Jules Koundé, Iñigo Martínez, Pau Cubarsí, Gerard Martín Midfield: Gavi, Frenkie de Jong, Pedri Attack: Lamine Yamal, Ferran Torres, Raphinha
Saba Yemen
21-04-2025
- Sport
- Saba Yemen
La Liga: Barcelona faces Real Mallorca in Round 33 tomorrow, Tuesday
Madrid - Saba: Barcelona is preparing to face Real Mallorca tomorrow, Tuesday, April 22, 2025, in the 33rd round of the Spanish League, at the "Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium" in Barcelona, at 9:30 PM Spanish time (10:30 PM Yemen time). Barcelona enters the match at the top of the table with 73 points, four points ahead of rivals Real Madrid, following their thrilling 4-3 win over Celta Vigo last round. The Catalan team, led by coach Hansi Flick, seeks to continue their winning streak to secure the title before the highly anticipated El Clásico against Real Madrid on May 11. Barcelona is suffering from significant absences, most notably Robert Lewandowski, Marc-André ter Stegen, and Alejandro Balde, which may force Flick to rely on Ferran Torres in attack. Real Mallorca sits in seventh place with 44 points and hopes to achieve a positive result to boost their chances of qualifying for European competitions. The team is missing several key players, such as Vedat Muriqi and Dani Rodriguez, making the task even more difficult for the league leaders. ⚽️ Predicted Lineup Barcelona (4-2-3-1): Szczesny; Kounde, Coparci, Martinez, Martin; De Jong, Pedri; Yamal, López, Rafinha; Torres. Real Mallorca (3-5-2): Greif; Valent, Railo, Copti; Lato, Sanchez, Samu Costa, Darder, Mujica; Larin, Prats. ???? Predictions and Odds According to the bookmakers, Barcelona is the favorite to win, with odds at 1.19 for a win, 13.5 for Mallorca, and 6.85 for a draw. 22Bet ???? Match Stream The match will be broadcast live on M+ LaLiga TV, as well as Movistar Plus+ and Orange. Live coverage can also be followed on Whatsapp Telegram Email Print
