We Just Witnessed a Double-Doom Anti-Clásico
Published on 26-Sep-2018 by Axel Krüger
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To be clear, Kinda Black Wednesday happened in La Liga and not the Champions League.
The irony is that the two sides who've come to be the sole image of La Liga actually lost to a pair of lunch-bucket sides whose results are usually ignored:
- Sevilla thoroughly embarrassed Real Madrid, 3-0, while
- Leganés two goals in two second-half minutes to edge Barcelona, 2-1.
It was well and truly the day of the dogs.
The last time these dual drubbings occurred was 4 Jan 2015, when ...
Incredibly, those achievements passed without a national holiday being declared as normal things still took precedence. Or something.
Leganés was sitting dead last in the table with one whole point to its credit when Barça came to town.
Los Pepineros -- the Cucumber Growers; really -- spent most of the afternoon playing minnow football, but then magic happened in the 52nd and 53rd minutes. Apparently, Philippe Coutinho's 12th-minute goal lulled the Blaugrana into a false sense of apathy.
Color video was there to record it all:
Incidentally, full marks to Leganés 'keeper Iván Cuéllar. Dude had himself a day.
To be fair, Sevilla has more tradition than a Shakespearean barber.
If anyone was gonna knock off one of the Spanish giants, it'd be a side like Los Rojiblancos.
- Dudes made it to the Champions League quarter-finals before FC Bayern took them out, and
- They made it through the Europa League's qualifiers to reach this season's group stage.
With Real coming into this midweek fixture fresh off an uninspired 2-2 home draw with mid-table Girona.
So, this result could be more than a hiccup, especially as the Sevillistas absolutely blitzed their visitors with a 3-spot in the first half.
Real has only surrened three first-half goals three times in the 21st century, with the last one happening in 2003.
They've got more to concern them than history, though. The here-&-now appears to be handful enough at the moment.