Shock for Mourinho, Barcelona questions and Sociedad close: talkSPORT’s La Liga Lowdown
The Copa del Rey final on Friday was the headline act in Spain at the weekend, and for once the Madrid derby delivered in terms of drama, quality and the unexpected.
For Jose Mourinho, the game ended in humiliation, while his opposite number Diego Simeone was left looking far more special than the deflated Portuguese coach.
Elsewhere, Deportivo took a giant step towards one more season in La Liga, Real Sociedad kept themselves in pole position for Champions League football, and Barcelona's emotional league celebrations left questions to be asked. talkSPORT's La Liga Lowdown dissects the drama...
Copa del Rey cements Diego Simeone's special status while Mourinho bows out with humiliation
If protagonism was what Jose Mourinho sought on Friday night then he achieved his goal, but perhaps not in the way he had foreseen. Mou's imprint was left on the Copa del Rey final before a ball had been kicked, when news emerged that veteran defender Pepe was not only omitted from the team in favour of Raul Albiol, but left out of the squad entirely. It was a huge risk from the Madrid coach, and would come back to haunt him later on a night that summed up his spell at the Bernabeu well, in its disappointment for Real.
For a while it looked like more of the same when Cristiano Ronaldo threw Atletico defender Diego Godin aside with minimal effort to head in Madrid's opener early on. In principle it was the worst possible start for Diego Simeone's team, but their character shone through in response, and Atleti began to get a foot on the ball through Falcao, Felipe Luis and Arda Turan.
In the 36th minute, Falcao produced the latest in his series of brilliant moments for Atletico, but this time it wasn't a goal. This time, the Colombian proved that he is far more than just a goalscorer, when he picked up the ball in midfield, shrugged off a challenge from Raul Albiol, then rolled the defender one more time for good measure before popping a pass off with perfection to the on-rushing Diego Costa. The Brazilian then applied a finish with so much force he fell to the ground. Albiol's half-hearted attempt to stop El Tigre in the build-up proved costly, and many Madrid supporters doubted that Pepe would have been mastered with such ease.
In the second half, Atletico pulled out every trick in the book to rattle their opponents, calling upon the master of trades when it comes to unnerving opponents. Diego Costa was a constant thorn in the side of the Madrid back-line, uttering a sly insult to Fabio Coentrao in Portuguese one minute, then drawing a foul out of him the next. Coentrao dove in again soon after and received a booking for his trouble, and it was the first in a wave for Madrid that followed, with Sami Khedira, Mesut Ozil, Sergio Ramos and Cristiano Ronaldo all joining him in the book before the end of normal time. Jose Mourinho, for his part, was shown a straight red for shouting at the officials, sent to the stands with his tail between his legs. Not only had Atletico held, but they had grown in stature, looking both the more assured and the fitter of the teams heading in to extra time. How would Jose Mourinho counter Simeone's hand?
The answer: by playing all three of his substitutions at the start of extra time. In principle, the idea was clear; Higuain's fresh legs for Benzema, Di Maria on for Modric to add an injection of pace, and Arbeloa for Coentrao who had been booked. Yet for Diego Simeone, who smelled blood, it was a sign of fear. Fear from Mourinho, who clearly didn't want this game to go the distance, to penalties, particularly with specialist Iker Casillas not in the team. Simeone refused to be drawn, making no initial changes of his own in response, instead putting his faith in the players that had gotten this far. It paid off.
Diego Lopez was forced to save one-on-one from Diego Costa, then, Michael Essien had to make a similar interception from the forward. Atletico were creating chances, good chances too, and from the corner that followed Essien's clearance, Miranda smashed home a header from Gabi's cross at the second time of asking. Atletico legend Paulo Futre, who had been brought in to commentate on the match for Spanish television, nearly had a heart attack. Could this finally be it?
They were ahead, but Madrid weren't going to go down without a fight. Thibaut Courtois pulled out two world-class saves to keep his side in front, the Belgian proving his quality yet again on the big stage. For once, Madrid didn't know how to react, and the result was all but confirmed when Ronaldo was shown a straight red for lashing out at Gabi. Diego Lopez came up for a corner with seconds to play, but the cup was Atletico's, 13 years of pain and suffering ended in the back yard of their biggest rivals. In a cup final. The most cathartic of exorcisms.
In his post-match press conference, Mourinho was clearly fuming. He leaves Real Madrid as the coach with the least number of trophies out of the seven managers that have spent three or more seasons at the club. One Copa del Rey, one league title and a Spanish Supercup, the latter being a trophy he once dismissed when Barcelona were lifting it at his expense.
Diego Simeone, meanwhile, has achieved miracles with Atletico in just over a year and a half, taking a team that was in 10th place and staring downwards when he arrived, to a comfortable third place finish and a brief chance of splitting the top two this season. Then there's his Europa League title, won over a brilliant Athletic Bilbao team that eliminated Manchester United from the competition, and a European Super Cup that came at the expense of the Champions League holders Chelsea. Perhaps most importantly, there's Atletico's 10th Copa del Rey, lifted at the Bernabeu of all places. The Special One? Not Mourinho, but quite possibly Diego Pablo Simeone. If the Argentine wasn't such a diehard Atletico fan, Florentino Perez would surely try to hire him to clean up Mou's mess.
Real Sociedad edge closer to Champions League qualification
Valencia's narrow 1-0 away win at Getafe early on Saturday obliged Real Sociedad to pick up three points in a tough trip to the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan later that day. La Real's return to fourth place looked anything but guaranteed when Ivan Rakitic latched on to Geoffrey Kondogbia's pass and fired Sevilla ahead early on. Philippe Montanier's side could have hit back almost instantly, but Agirretxe failed to get on the end of the ball when it flashed across the face of Sevilla's goal. The Basques couldn't match Rakitic's opener, it seemed, so he done it for them, scoring an own goal from a free-kick to level the score. That was the the first of two pivotal slices of luck for the away team on the night, though there was nothing lucky about the next goal. Agirretxe made sure he didn't squander his second chance to score a volley from a nice Carlos Martinez diagonal ball. It was the Basque striker's 16th goal of the season.
The game continued to swing back and fourth, with neither team controlling the midfield, and Sevilla were particularly hard done by when Gary Medel rushed through on goal, unchallenged, only to be flagged offside. The replays showed that the midfielder was on by a good six yards or so, a horrible error on behalf of the officials, and the second lucky break for the visitors. Jose Antonio Reyes, who was warming up on the sidelines, was sent off before he even came on as a result of his protests. That summed up Sevilla's night; so close but yet so far. The three points, meanwhile, keep Real Sociedad's fate in their own hands. Arsenal could await in Champions League qualifying. They look likely to be without coach Philippe Montanier however, who is expected to announce that he will join Stade Rennais. Another talented manager leaves La Liga on economic grounds.
Deportivo pull clear of the relegation zone by the narrowest of margins
Deportivo's dramatic turnaround in fortunes in recent weeks still hasn't been quite enough to keep them out of a relegation battle, and the Galicians sat third from bottom before they hosted Espanyol at the Riazor on Sunday evening. Both sides had chances early on, but the half-time whistle went without a goal scored, Depor's position looking ever-more precarious. Fortunately for them, Bruno Gama unleashed a beautiful strike to put them ahead soon after the break, while Espanyol failed to create much of note in the minutes that followed. The dominance shifted in Depor's favour, with Striker Ricky curling a shot just high after going through on goal, and his replacement Nelson Oliveira made no such mistake when he dinked Alvarez in added time. Two games remain to be played, but sort-of-super Depor have a fighting chance of avoiding the drop.
Barcelona celebrate league in emotional manner but leave questions unanswered
Tito Vilanova proved true to form by opting for as close to his established eleven as possible against Valladolid on Sunday, choosing not to field many of the youngsters whose lack of experience has proven costly for Barcelona this season. While there is much merit to be found in the FCB manager's league triumph, his squad management has been baffling, particularly in light of the injuries and fatigue that have ravaged the over-used veterans in the team. With the league already won, such stubbornness was hard to justify, and sums up from where some of Barcelona's problems have emerged in recent months.
The game itself contained little to write home about, a largely routine 2-1 victory with Valladolid's only involvement a late penalty, and it was the post-match celebration that threw up the real talking points. It was perhaps the most muted of celebrations in recent years at the Camp Nou, the real life difficulties faced by the team this season overshadowing the challenges faced in their day jobs. That was acknowledged in the night's most touching moment, when Carles Puyol left the cup-lifting duties to Eric Abidal and Vilanova, a far cry from John Terry's shameless photo opportunity in Amsterdam. Somewhat surprisingly, the 50,000 or so supporters in the Camp Nou were only treated to the words of Puyol and Vilanova in the celebrations, rather than the usual barrage of speeches that follow a cup win. Though his speech was brief, Vilanova's call for supporters to 'help and motivate' the team sounded for many like a goodbye. Twitter exploded with speculation from supporters and journalists alike in response, and while Barcelona worked quick to downplay the suggestion, insisting that the speech had no significance beyond its literal meaning, there was a sense that this could be an end of an era for at least some of those celebrating on the Camp Nou turf. Not least Eric Abidal, who it appears will not be offered a new deal with the Catalans in the coming weeks. He may not be the only veteran of Guardiola's triumphant era to leave Barcelona this summer. Sporting Director Andoni Zubizarreta has a lot of work on his hands.
Alan Hutton watch
The Scot's Real Mallorca take on Real Betis tonight in Palma, and anything less than a home win for the islanders means certain relegation. That's no easy task at the best of times, but particularly when Betis are playing for a Europa League spot, so Hutton could be waving goodbye to his sunny island home before the day is done. Whether that's a goodbye to Spain in general remains to be seen.
Elsewhere: Getafe 0-1 Valencia, Granada 3-0 Osasuna, Levante 2-3 Rayo, Zaragoza 1-2 Athletic. Celta 1-3 Atletico and Madrid 6-2 Malaga were played on May 8th due to the Copa del Rey final.
Is Jose Mourinho's star beginning to fade, or can his spell at Madrid be seen as no more than a blip? Let us know by leaving a comment below...