Friday, May 18th, 2012
After a pre-match narrative painting Deportivo La Coruña as a club whose internal strife threatened to finally rip apart a season already in unquestionable danger of ending in ruins, one could have forgiven a suffering home support from finding a more attractive option for its Saturday night entertainment. Oh, but how they missed out if they did.
A Riazor betraying numerous spaces of empty seating nevertheless came together to generate an admirable atmosphere, driven on in the first half by a Deportivo display of verve and no little commitment, comprehensively superior to a Sevilla side absent-minded in defence and painfully lacking in creativity or cohesion in attack. Prior to the match, Depor defender Manuel Pablo had suggested that manager Miguel Ángel Lotina’s outspoken criticism of his team after defeat to Zaragoza should serve to produce a reaction from a team endeavouring to avoid a fourth straight league defeat. And with the captain constantly and dangerously raiding down the left, Míchel impressive and attacker Adrián pulling wide to good effect on both wings, this it did.
Indeed, it surprised nobody to see the Galicians, evidently a team transformed in the opening exchanges, take a deserved lead. And how – forward Lassad Nouioui, driving towards the Sevilla box, looked up, wrapped his right foot around the ball and curled a twenty-five-yard missile into Sevilla goalkeeper Andrés Palop’s top left-hand corner in a manner reminiscent of Didier Drogba’s (almost) inimitable free-kick style.
As the second half began, a partially-improved Sevilla side – ears presumably ringing from some less-than-complimentary words from a stern looking Gregorio Manzano – started to threaten. Yet five minutes of football on the hour mark appeared to define the match irrevocably in Deportivo’s favour. First, Palop saw red for handling outside of his area. Then, a sublime pass from Manuel Pablo left Adrián with the simple task of laying the ball across the six-yard area, for Lassad to enjoy the even simpler task of stroking into an empty net to extend their lead. Game over? No. And here, perhaps, is the beauty of football as a sport. 60 minutes of complete, utter and total Deportivo superiority, and within twenty stupefying minutes, a game inexplicably yet most brilliantly turned on its head.
If the criticism of Sevilla in the first half had been that its attack contained too many converters and not enough creators, striker Álvaro Negredo served a fitting reminder that having a natural finisher or two around can actually be rather useful. First, he displayed laudable and unerring sang froid to rifle home a deflected clearance and reduce the arrears. And, once defender Julien Escudé had bundled home Depor keeper Daniel Aranzubia’s fumble from Luis Fabiano’s free-kick, the moment came for the second instalment of Negredo’s lesson in finishing. Didier Zokora’s floated through ball had the forward running into the Deportivo penalty box but away from goal, yet one swing of a lethal left foot and the bouncing ball had flown back across goal and past a startled Aranzubia’s outstretched left arm.
3-2 to Sevilla, and surely a Deportivo so undermined by the public bickering of the past week would throw in the towel, and it really would be game over this time. Again, and resoundingly so, no. That old blanquiazul war horse Juan Carlos Valerón, wheeled out once more as a second-half substitute, rolled back the years to produce a wonderfully flicked through pass to Laure, who smashed in to level up with a minute left on the clock. Sevilla’s players, already bearing the indignation of the perceived injustices of midweek, protested vehemently, and excessively, that he had been in an offside position. Indeed, it is a wonder that a ten-man team did not find its numbers reduced once more. In any case, television replays proved Laure onside.
An enthralling second period had well and truly come to the boil and, as tempers threatened to flare, Sevilla replacement keeper Javi Varas denied Juan Domínguez a dramatic home winner at the death. Yet this would have been cruel on a Sevilla side who, in the end, had contributed so much to the match. After an eventful week for both clubs, a game to match.
FT: Deportivo 3 (Lassad 14, 62, Laure 89) – Sevilla 3 (Negredo 63, 79, Escudé 74)
