Make sure you check out the video of me and Gerry Armstrong talking about the climax of the Spanish football season. It’s available on the Radio News Hub You Tube page and on my Facebook page.
With 2 rounds of games left to go, everything could be decided in La Liga today. Real Mallorca need to win both of their games to stay up. At home to Granada tonight and away against Osasuna on Sunday. Both are winnable but I’m not sure whether it will be enough. It’s two from Mallorca, Leganés, Alaves and Celta. You can see from the fixtures below who has the easier and hardest tasks. Speculation in the papers is that the coach Vincente Moreno is off at the end of season to join relegated Espanyol. Something he has swerved this week when asked but didn’t deny it and said they were concentrating on the Granada game.
“We have to win, and depending on what the others do, we’ll have one last chance [to stay up] and we’ll hold on to that with all our might. We’re facing a great team which this year has been strengthened with important players. Granada CF’s season is no coincidence.”
“I am convinced that if we win this game, we’ll have one last chance and then a thousand things can happen. When more than one person hasn’t expected something to happen, we’ve accomplished things. We have a lot of people behind us who dream of the team staying in La Liga. We’re going to leave everything out there to make it happen”.
Reflecting upon the season as a whole ahead of the crucial fixture, Moreno says he can’t fault the players for their effort over the course of our first season back in La Liga for six years.
“The players have put everything into this,” he continued. “We haven’t had any luck at certain times, and that’s complicated everything. I can’t blame the players at all. We’re going to fight for it and see if we can have a happy ending.
“It’s the most important moment of our career because it’s the last. Without what we’ve achieved in the past, we wouldn’t be here now. We don’t want to let a lot of people down. We have all our energy to achieve our goal.”
I also asked the press officer at Mallorca about the speculation around Moreno, his reply was “no idea!” If true it’s a little sad as I thought he might give it another go after bringing them up before. I can only assume he’s been offered more money.
La Liga remaining fixtures.
Eibar v Valladolid(18.30)
Barcelona v Osasuna
Celta v Levante
Getafe v Atlético
Mallorca v Granada
Betis v Alavés
R. Madrid v Villarreal
R. Sociedad v Sevilla
Athletic B v Leganés
Valencia v Espanyol
Valladolid v Betis(18.30)
Alavés v Barcelona
Atlético v R. Sociedad
Espanyol v Celta
Granada v Athletic Bilbao
Leganés v R. Madrid
Levante v Getafe
Osasuna v Mallorca
Sevilla v Valencia
Villarreal v Eibar
Congratulations to Cadiz CF who have been promoted to La Liga for the first time in 15 years. One more from Huesca, Almería, Zaragoza or Girona for the second automatic place and then the last place will be via the play-offs.
This weekend it’s the Segunda B play-offs. Saturday it’s Castellón v Logroñés at 22.00, followed by Athletico Baleares v Cartagena on Sunday at 22.00. Both games are being played at La Rosaleda, the home of Malaga. The winners go up to La Liga 2, the losers will join the winners of the following games for one further place.
Sat 18th UD Ibiza v Cornelia
Sat 18th Marbella v Pena Deportiva
Sat 18th At Bilbao B v Badajoz
Sun 19th Sabadell v Atletico M B
Sun 19th Barca B v Real Valladolid B
Sun 19th Cultural Leonesa v Yeclano Deportivo
Hopefully Baleares do it without joining the next lottery of games. UD Ibiza have a great chance of going up too. That would mean that if Mallorca do get relegated then there will be three Balearic teams in La Liga 2. I’ve said it before that will be great news for the islands, especially grass roots football.
Take care everyone, I’m back at the Weekend.
Richie presents the Radio One Mallorca Breakfast show Monday to Friday07.30-11.00am on 93.8fm in Mallorca and 102fm in Calvià, online atwww.radioonemallorca.com on mobile through their free App for IPhone & Android, The Tunein Radio App, iTunes, the Spanish TDT TV service and all smart speakers. If you can’t hear him on the radio then you’ll find him working at Pirates Adventure the islands number one night out and every now and again he may make an understudy appearance!
Follow him on Twitter @DadTaxi1 & Instagram @dad.taxi or feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com
Dad Taxi Mallorca 