The Antonis Papadopoulos Stadium, in Larnaca, would be the ground where the Spanish football team would live one of the most dishonorable episodes in its history. He was going to the Cypriot city for the qualifying phase for Euro 2000, but an unexpected defeat against an almost amateur team by three goals against two put the then national coach Javier Clemente in the firing. If the criticisms and tensions regarding his work at the head of the team were high, this was the straw that broke the camel's back. It happened on September 5, 1998, 25 years ago.

This episode of national football is one of those that recovers Report +, the sports program of Movistar Plus + that on the occasion of the start of its seventeenth season has dedicated a special to the figure of Javier Clemente, for the first time articulated as a documentary series of three deliveries (issued between this Wednesday and Sunday).

"Either you were Clement's or you were against him. It is the reflection of a society, of the media, of sports journalism. This is the story of a country," says Luis Fermoso, director of the program. For its realization, more than 100 hours of archive material from between 1990 and 1998 have been examined and key characters have been interviewed, from the former Chirpiota coach Panikos Georgiou, to journalists such as Santiago Segurola, Alfredo Relaño and footballers such as Santiago Cañizares, Luis Enrique or Julio Salinas. Of course, also Javier Clemente himself.

Before reaching the setback in Larnaca, Clemente's Spain takes us to the match against Italy in the 94 World Cup, where La Roja was taken out of the competition in the quarterfinals by the goals of the Baggio and an elbow from Tassotti to Luis Enrique that the referee preferred to ignore despite the blood.

"It was a shame, a tremendous rage. I remember Luis. He was my roommate. The night he gave me was terrible. His nose was broken and we didn't sleep. A night to remember", said Aberlado during the presentation of the program at the FesTVal in Vitoria. Also, for Salinas' missed opportunity to score. "It is impossible for anyone to reproach Julio Salinas with the goals he has scored in his life," justifies Rafael Alkorta, "He has scored goals in all the countries and teams in which he has played. But it's something he has to take with him."

The second installment advances to the Euro 1996, held in England, but not only analyzes the game of the Red but also the particular coexistence he had with the press of the moment. It was the only team that stayed in the same hotel as the sports journalists who covered the event and generated a claustrophobic atmosphere and not conducive to concentration in the game. Not only were there tensions between journalists and players, but there were also sides between the reporters.

"The problem comes when in the press they attack each other," says Alkorta, "You saw that they gave birth to you and the issue began to become rarefied because there were two factions of the press, which had their own troubles. Garcia was Javi's [Clemente], although he gave us when he had to give us, but the other faction gave us no matter what." However, Aberlardo acknowledges that those press conferences were "entertaining" and that the players were always present to see the knives fly.

And so, in the third episode, he arrives in Cyprus to narrate the dismissal of Javier Clemente. "It was a shame because it was six years that there are magnificent results," defends Aberlardo, who describes the protagonist of the documentary series as "a genius", with whom he coincided as his second coach of Sporting: "I knew him closer as a person and he won me much more. As a coach he is very smart: I remember that when I arrived I did not know many players and after two or three days I already knew all their characteristics". Alkorta, meanwhile, has another word to define Clemente: "Brave."