Sporting Gijón sent tumbling into the abyss by Deportivo and Leganés

There were two minutes left on the penultimate night when Fernando Amorebieta approached the bench one last time. Any news? He would have heard if there was and deep down he knew what they were going to say, but he had to ask. By the touchline at Ipurua they waited, phones and radios at the ready, and the scene was repeated in the corner of the ground where 300 fans stood. On the pitch, their minds were drawn to San Mamés or El Madrigal, clinging to a hope they couldn’t see. This time, though, there was no miracle, no one riding to their rescue. “Anything?” Nothing. Time was slipping away and so were they. Sporting Gijón were on course for a second successive victory; they were also on course for the second division, their fate finally decided 50km west and 600km south.

On this given Sunday, at least. No fate but what you make – and Sporting’s relegation was their own work. Institutional crisis, social divide and financial limitations had brought them here, the “revolution” run aground, revealed as but a brief rebellion against their reality; they had never expected to get up to primera in the first place and had enjoyed two seasons there but now they were heading down again, just when they seemed to have been given the chance to secure a little stability, their very survival no longer in doubt; the club had been saved by the team, their coach insisting: “Let’s see if we can build a bit so we don’t have to suffer again.” Instead, they went down.

If the league’s second lowest salary cap limited them, it was the culmination of long mismanagement and they could only blame themselves. More immediately, footballers who might have helped them left for free, their contracts run down, and others who did not help arrived, in great quantity and questionable quality. After two years in which their hands were tied – earnings embargoed because of debts to the taxman and players – Sporting signed 13 players. They picked up seven points from their first three games but the decline was unstoppable. Five defeats took them into the relegation zone and although two draws meant they briefly lifted their head above the water, they then started sinking. They lost seven of eight and never raised their heads again.

They changed coach: out went Abelardo, in came Rubi. They changed players: three more arrived in the winter window, including Lacina Traoré. But it didn’t help. Some suffered but others disengaged, unaffected by what was going on around them. Two wins in 19 games in 2017 brought them here. Or, more accurately, left them here. They have been in the relegation zone for 26 weeks.

Still, there was hope. As the season came to a conclusion, they thought there might be help, too. For the last two years, Sporting had done it on the final day, aided by outsiders. They came up with a late Lugo goal against Girona, and then stayed up thanks to victory over a Villarreal side whose manager Marcelino, a former Sporting player, manager and fan, had to defend himself against accusations that he had thrown the game, and thanks to Betis beating Getafe. This time, things appeared to have fallen nicely, too: their final three games would be against Las Palmas, Eibar and Betis, all teams with nothing to play for. Meanwhile, although they only needed a point, this weekend Leganés and Deportivo la Coruña had to go away to Athletic and Villarreal, two sides fighting for fifth. Sporting beat Las Palmas and against Eibar they won 1-0, the first time they had won two in a row all season – and most expected a third Sporting win to follow against Betis.

But this time was different; they didn’t get to that final day. Having taken themselves to the edge of the abyss, this time Sporting had no one to pull them back. Instead, when the penultimate weekend kicked off, everyone who had anything to play for beginning at the same time, they had two teams waiting to send them tumbling in. All Leganés and Deportivo needed was a draw and it would be definitive but for Sporting the news was initially encouraging. They had been overrun to begin with but were now 1-0 up through Burgui, who scored after half an hour. They knew it was still 0-0 between Villarreal and Deportivo but the home side were on top. And as for Leganés, they were losing at San Mamés, for whom Aritz Aduriz had scored on 15 minutes.

“Sí, se puede!” Sporting’s fans chanted. Yes, we can.

No, they couldn’t. Well, they could but it was too late now, no longer in their hands. And, after 62 minutes, Gabriel scooped a gorgeous ball over the defence to Alex Szymanowski to score. It was 9.18pm; 1-1 in Bilbao. In Villarreal, it was still 0-0. “When they told me Leganés had scored I knew it was over,” Burgui admitted.

Time raced or crawled, depending on where you were and who you were. The three cities were connected; up in Eibar, Sporting were comfortable but what mattered more was that at El Madrigal, Cedric Bakambu passed up a great chance and that Deportivo defended; what mattered most was that Leganés, too, held on, a third centre-back introduced. Athletic approached, the ball flying into the area, over and over. High at San Mamés, almost 1,000 fans screamed for the whistle to go. In Eibar, Sporting’s fans willed it not to. They pleaded for a goal. Just one. Their game was won but the game was elsewhere. Amorebieta went to the bench. Still no sign. And then, at 9.49pm, Sporting slipped away. They were down; Depor and Leganés had done it.

With 33 and 34 points respectively, survival had been cheap; for Sporting relegation may be costly – but at least not as costly as if it had happened last season when survival really might have meant survival. Not that it came as much consolation. They were crying at Ipurua. “It hurts,” Rubi said. “This tastes awful. We hoped to at least make it to the final week; we thought that we might have one last bullet then but if [Depor and Leganés] could get a point against teams as good as that we have to congratulate them. I absolve the players: we have worked day and night, they have worked, run, fought. If we lacked something, it wasn’t that.”

“We feel like fucking shit,” Xavi Torres said. “This is the other side of football and it’s hard to live it.”

The other side was down at El Madrigal where Depor’s players were dancing in a circle; they hadn’t expected to get dragged into it but they had been dangerously close. “This points leaves us where we’re supposed to be,” Pepe Mel said.

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Over in Bilbao, Leganés were celebrating, too, embracing in tears, bowing down before their supporters. Their case was different to Depor’s. An unexpectedly welcome addition to the top flight, Leganés always thought they would be in a relegation fight. They hoped to be, in fact: some anticipated them being down ahead of time. Instead, they had survived with a week to spare. Back home to the south of Madrid, those who had stayed behind were dancing in the streets. “I don’t like to over-celebrate survival, getting carried away, as it makes you a small club,” the coach, Asier Garitano, insisted. “We’re very happy but civic receptions? Bus rides …”

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Maybe not but this was something to celebrate. “This is what you play football for,” Garitano rightly said. Leganés had done it and at the best possible place, too – “somewhere historic, the cathedral of football,” as Szymanowski put it. Like his team-mates, the former pizza delivery boy who is now a first division player, the man who scored the goal that kept them up, was wearing a T-shirt that read “mission accomplished” on the front. It had been some mission – impossible, most said – but here they were. Here they are. Before the game, the Leganés captain, Martin Mantovani, had laid flowers at the bust of Pichichi, as tradition dictates. This was the first time Leganés had been to San Mamés, after all. It won’t be the last.

Talking points

The last night at the Bernabéu was played out to olés and huge roars, the noise of a stadium that knows it is close now – close to something historic, even for them. A 4-1 win over Sevilla takes Madrid to within four points of a first league title in five years and maybe a first league and European double in 59. Nacho’s fast free-kick, legal but rolled into the net when no one was ready, a Sevilla player was helping an opponent to his feet and the ref was standing in the way – argue away down there – gave them the lead. Stevan Jovetic could have had four, twice hitting the bar, and for a while Madrid were on edge, but by the end they had blown Sevilla to bits. James said goodbye. Nacho was sent off for standing up. Toni Kroos bowling-balled another finish so smooth that the word smooth should really be spelled with an extra “o” or three, and Ronaldo belted in a real beauty off the bar. “We still have a long way to go,” Zidane said, twisting and turning himself inside out. “Well, not a long way. Every day, it is less. But it is not done. We have to think about the most negative possible scenarios. We’re very positive.”

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The first and second Barcelona goals in their 4-1 win at Las Palmas? Woof.

Asked if he would be watching Madrid’s game in hand at Celta on Wednesday night – a question that, oddly, is always set up as some kind of a trap, and one players and managers equally oddly always seem to want to avoid answering – Ivan Rakitic said: “I don’t know. Probably, yes. But if the kids want to go to the park or something …”

Another day, another defeat for Tony Adams’s Granada. And now they’re bottom. “It’s a disgrace,” striker Adrián Ramos said.

Three weeks running, la Real, Athletic and Villarreal have matched each other, thus ensuring the theme of the season is maintained: that nothing really changes. The final European places will go to the final day, then.

Results: Espanyol 0–1 Valencia, Osasuna 2–1 Granada, Alavés 3–1 Celta, Las Palmas 1–4 Barcelona, Athletic 1–1 Leganés, Betis 1–1 Atlético, Eibar 0–1 Sporting, Villarreal 0–0 Deportivo, Real Madrid 4-1 Sevilla, Real Sociedad 2–2 Málaga.