Room for revamp in Liga basement
Granada coach González on borrowed time after Espanyol defeat
Espanyol continued its fine post-winter break form with a 3-0 home win against struggling Granada on Saturday to lift Mauricio Pochettino's side to fifth in La Liga. Buoyed by an unlikely five-minute flurry to swing its midweek King's Cup tie against Mirandés back in its favor, the periquitos were largely untroubled by Fabriciano González's side, which is mired in its worst run of results so far this season, losing four of its last five and three on the trot. Raúl Baena, Joan Verdú and Rui Fonte, the latter two also finding the net against Mirandés, provided the goals.
González has engineered two consecutive promotions in the past two season - leading Granada from the depths of Segunda B to Primera División - but this latest setback, which may well leave his side in the relegation zone with 18th-placed Sporting hosting 19th-placed Villarreal on Monday, has persuaded his board to review his position at the helm of the club. "Granada is very much alive and we cannot allow it to die," said González ominously. "It needs oxygen."
The same could be said of Racing, which has sought to distance itself from the match-fixing allegations surrounding departed coach Héctor Cúper, but has not even come close to erasing the institutional and sporting disarray that is the legacy of another man it would probably rather forget, erstwhile owner Ahsan Ali Syed. With crippling debts, unpaid salaries and the club in the hands of administrators, Racing desperately needs some on-field respite and it is against teams like Getafe, which had just one win on the road prior to Saturday's match at El Sardinero, that it should be seeking it. Despite taking the lead through Stuani, Racing fell to a 1-2 defeat, sown up when Miku found the net seven minutes from time. "They caught us by surprise on occasion," Racing coach Juanjo González noted.
At the other end of the table, Barcelona maintained the pressure on leader Real Madrid with a crushing 4-0 victory over the latest diner at the financial top table, Málaga. The oil-rich Anchovies were blown away by Leo Messi, who bagged yet another hat-trick as Barça closed the gap ahead of Real's late home game against Athletic.
Other results: Osasuna 1-1 Valencia; Sevilla 1-1 Betis; Rayo 0-1 Mallorca;
Atlético turns back the clocks
Last September, early in Gregorio Manzano's brief and unpopular second tenure at Atlético Madrid, the rojiblancos won back-to-back matches by four goals to nil against Racing and Sporting, leading to somewhat premature delusions of grandeur. Record signing Radamel Falcao helped himself to five goals in those 180 minutes and the sensation was that Barcelona, Atlético's next encounter, was in for a torrid time. After all, during Pep Guardiola's serene march to three Liga titles, the Mattress Makers had been something of a pea under Barça's cushion of princely perfection.
Five unanswered goals later, Atlético slunk back to the capital with its collective tail between its legs. Falcao, "The Tiger," like Shere Khan, had his thoroughly burned, hardly getting a sniff of goal in his first real test after a 50-million euro move from Porto. A typically Atlético run of results followed: six games with just one win, against Zaragoza, to break the drudgery. While La Liga slipped away for another season, a competition both club and talisman enjoy, the Europa League, provided some respite with Atlético providing a masterclass against Udinese as it progressed to the knock-out rounds.
So it was with some note of caution that new coach Diego Simeone, a former player who was part of the last championship-winning side in 1996, stated that things "should be taken slowly" after Atlético dispatched Villarreal 3-0. Falcao was on target twice and the Calderón applauded the side's attacking verve, so painfully absent under Manzano.
But could the Simeone effect last another week? A match against Real Sociedad, unbeaten in seven games, in a stadium where Atlético had not won in 19 years was a decent litmus test. Falcao bagged another hat-trick as Atlético cruised to a convincing 4-0 win that brought it to within a point of sixth and the Colombian's tally in the league to 14.
In three matches Simeone has yet to see his side concede - a legacy of the coach's own defensive qualities - while witnessing a free-scoring front line replete with movement and invention. Atlético now needs a top side against which to measure its progress: Valencia in two weeks, and Barça in four, should suffice.
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