All good things have to come to an end. Real Madrid’s 40 game unbeaten run did so in dramatic style at Sevilla on Sunday evening when Stevan Jovetic, the 28-year-old Montenegrin striker who had only signed on loan two days previously, scored a 94th-minute winner.
That followed an 84th-minute own goal from Seville-born former Sevilla player Sergio Ramos. Oh, how the locals in the giant red cavity of Sevilla’s Sanchez Pizjuan howled at that one.
The venue was fiery before during and after the game, with no fewer than nine different offensive chants condemned by the Primera Liga. Ramos was booed as he boarded his team’s bus and jeered loudly when his name was announced.
Real Madrid’s captain had again prompted Sevilla fans’ ire in last Thursday’s Copa del Rey tie when he scored a “panenka” style penalty and then cupped his ears towards the crowd which once loved him. Madrid came from 3-1 down in that game to draw 3-3 and preserve their unbeaten run.
The league result was not all that surprising. Sevilla won the equivalent fixture last season, they are the Europa League holders and Spain’s form team. Now they are only a point behind Madrid, though the leaders have a game in hand.
Thanks to the genius of their long-time sporting director Ramon Rodriguez Verdejo – or Monchi as he is better known – Sevilla buy and recruit loan player well.
He is responsible for almost all Sevilla’s famous signings: Daniel Alves, Julio Baptista, Seydou Keita, Adriano, Gary Medel, Ivan Rakitic, Christian Poulsen and Geoffrey Kondogbia. Their youth system has also promoted Ramos, Jose Antonio Reyes, Jesus Navas and Alberto Moreno among many others.
Samir Nasri, on loan from Manchester City and a club where Jovetic spent three years, was one of the best performers on Sunday. Steven N’Zonzi, the French holding midfielder who played for Stoke City and Blackburn Rovers in the Premier League, was the best of all, leading to his manager, Jorge Sampaoli, to describe him as “an octopus”.
The 40,000 Sevilla fans made a deafening din, chanting against Ramos while at the same time singing songs in honour of Rakitic and Alves, just to prove a point that they can remember their former heroes well. Ramos was always perceived to have left too young – he was 19 – with money the main motivator.
Sevilla’s greatest signing this season has been the Chilean manager Sampaoli. He has been an immediate success, taking his team to the top, beating the best and qualifying for the Uefa Champions League last 16 where they will next play Leicester City over two legs.
Sevilla play thrilling football. They take risks because Sampaoli realises that football should be about entertainment and not attrition. His team are ultra fit, competitive and always in the market for exciting talents or players whose stars have dimmed at other clubs, such as Nasri and Jovetic.
Sampaoli’s side never know they are beaten and have become famous for late equalisers and match winners in the short time he has been in charge.
Madrid, meanwhile, can be proud despite their defeat.
They surpassed Barcelona’s 39-match unbeaten run in all competitions, winning the Champions League, European Super League and World Club Championship along the way.
Their record matches the best unbeaten run by an English team, Nottingham Forest in 1978. When compared to teams from Europe’s top five leagues, it is only behind AC Milan’s 42-game run in 1992/93 and Juventus’ 43-game record from 2011/12.
Madrid’s run has taken them to the top of the league and into the last eight of the Copa del Rey and last 16 of this season’s Champions League, yet their league advantage remains slim.
Madrid remain favourites for only a second title since 2008, but only two points separate the top three, with Atletico Madrid six points behind in fourth.
“Hay Liga!” as they say in Spain, which means “The league is on”.
Camp Nou overflows
Another huge crowd was present at Camp Nou to see Barcelona brush Las Palmas aside 5-0. The 81,480 was 400 above their average for league games this season.
This is not the greatest Barca side, but crowds continue to rise and are already 4,000 higher than last season. Strip out the two opening games during the holiday season, which attracted crowds of 65,731 and 72,303, and the Catalans’ average would be over 85,000.
Their matches are attracting a fraction of the millions of tourists who visit Barcelona each year and the club are much more savvy when it comes to selling tickets to tourists, with posters all around the city and uniformed sellers approaching tourists in the street. There was not so much a hard sell but a no sell a decade ago as tourists struggled to buy tickets.
But the real surge has come from local fans, with younger supporters also being encouraged by a so-far successful singing section behind the goal which has breathed life into a stale atmosphere.
Other initiatives have helped. A Copa del Rey match against third-tier Hercules attracted 64,025 four days before Christmas. Despite a late kick off, the club put on free food and games for younger fans, and all ticket proceeds from the game went to charity.
Barca’s figures are more impressive given almost no away fans attend games at Camp Nou. Away fans are treated abysmally, with overpriced tickets at the top of the stadium behind a screen.
The surge in attendance will give the club confidence as they embark on expanding Camp Nou from a 98,800 capacity to 105,000. It is a huge undertaking to make a tired stadium one of the best in the world, with cover for all rather than only the main stand as at present.
Lionel Messi will remain central to the appeal of the fans and the club will make him an offer to be the best-paid player in Europe and extend his current contract beyond 2018, though there is disquiet among many in Catalonia where the phrase “seny” (common sense, integrity and awareness) prevails. To the rest of Spain, that means tight fists and parsimony.
Messi’s family and advisers go to games and watch from the main stand. They know the mood, and against a below-par Las Palmas team on Saturday who had too much respect for Barca, it was positive.
Messi himself was superb, which is almost expected, but credit should also go to the also-rans. Full-back Aleix Vidal has barely featured since signing from Sevilla in 2015, but he performed well and scored. Andre Gomes, the gifted Portuguese midfielder who has underwhelmed since his €30 million (Dh117.7m) signing from Valencia, also had his best game, while Paco Alcacer, who also cost €30m from the same club, was delighted to set up a goal.
More of the same and the crowds will keep coming.
Game of the week
■ Villarreal v Valencia, a derby between two teams based 40 kilometres apart. Villarreal have slipped out of the top four after another draw; Valencia managed only their fourth win of the season at home to hard-to-beat Espanyol. Salvador “Voro” Gonzalez usually injects some passion in his stints as caretaker manager at Valencia, but can he pick up a point in El Madrigal now he is interim boss until the end of the season?
Player of the week
■ Stoke City and Blackburn Rovers fans must be wondering if it is the same player, but their former charge Steven N'Zonzi was once against magnificent for Sevilla, dominating the midfield and one of few to outshine Luca Modric. The 28-year-old Frenchman breaks up play, instigates attacks and looks the leader of Spain's best team at present. A first French cap must surely beckon.
What else?
■ Cristiano Ronaldo put Madrid temporarily ahead in Sevilla with a penalty. In doing so, the Portuguese equalled Hugo Sanchez’s record of 56 penalties in Primera Liga.
■ Luis Suarez, the man who pipped Ronaldo to the Pichichi award last season, scored twice for Barca against Las Palmas. His 70 Primera Liga goals have taken him past Ronaldinho for Barcelona.
■ Villarreal goalkeeper Sergio Asenjo kept an eighth clean sheet of the season as his side were held 0-0 against Deportivo La Coruna. No goalkeeper has kept as many; no team has conceded as few goals as Villarreal’s 12.
■ Relegated Levante are running away with the second division in Spain, with 46 points at the halfway stage. Girona continue to look good to join them and play in the top flight for the first time. They beat Cordoba, while Getafe and Cadiz below them both failed to win.
■ The Copa del Rey continues this week. Real Madrid are at home to Celta Vigo on Wednesday in the quarter-final first leg. Neighbours Atletico entertain Eibar on Thursday, while Barcelona are at Real Sociedad, a venue where they perform worse than any other.
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