• Soccer: Deportivo is the 'pupas': from the fire in Riazor, to the penalty of Djukic and a descent to 2nd B without playing

While a sea of ​​tears flowed from Riazor with the historic descent from Deportivo to Segunda B, just 100 kilometers away, the horns thundered on the banks of the Río Miño. The residents of Lugo celebrated the achievement of a historical stay. 2020/2021 will be the rojiblanco club's ninth consecutive season in the silver category. But for a modest club, each save is celebrated as a title. And more, according to what everyone calls in the walled city as " the miracle of Juanfran ". The former Celta or Levante player , with no previous experience on the bench, has managed to revive the club from Lugo in recent days. The triumph againstMirandés (2-1) rounded off the feat. There was no need for calculators, just look ahead to get 11 out of 18 possible points . Four wins, two draws and no losses.

Being from Lugo despite being born in the city is an exercise in resistance. The shadow of the historic basketball Breogán has always been long. To which must be added the preference for large teams that leaves the club's social mass at just 3,000 but committed legionaries. A group that saw how in 2012 the tables turned. Quique Setién , today coach of FC Barcelona, ​​put the rojiblanco team on the Spanish football map with a promotion against Cádiz in Carranza, of which a documentary has even been made. An author team that, even today, is remembered by the Cantabrian technician as one of its greatest milestones. If there is a place where Setién can always go back through the front door, that is Lugo, a team founded in 1953 that until 2012 had only been in the silver category once in its history. The next season will be, on its own merits, the second team in the community.

Less than a month ago: moral eviction in El Molinón

On Matchday 36 , less than a month ago, the team lost to Sporting de Gijón at Molinón and was three points from salvation . But beyond the qualifying situation, the team, led at the time by Curro Torres , was dead in the mood. This was confessed by his captain Carlos Pita in the pre-final against Mirandés. A man with 10 seasons as rojiblanco behind him. By the way, coruñés and formed in the blue and white quarry. The forces were very fair and the dying end of the previous year was still dragging.

In 2018/2019, CD Lugo also saved the ' in extremis ' category on the last day after a non-aggression pact with Tenerife . Both benefited from Rayo Majadahonda's suicide against Real Oviedo . But Second is not very given to giving double opportunities. If you languish one year, only one revolution can save you the next from not losing the category. There are the recent cases of Nàstic or Córdoba . Still, no league has a higher degree of unpredictability. There are many emotions that come together. On the one hand, historical figures who long to return to Primera. On the other hand, teams like Lugo for which being in professional football is already a merit. These, the lower class, have to present an impeccable management if they want to continue, something that the Galician team has lacked in recent years, turned into a temporary work company for technicians and coaches. A reality that further amplifies Juanfran's miracle .

An inexperienced man on the bench beyond his time in the lower categories of Levante who signed on June 30. The date that most contracts would end in a world without global pandemics. He was leaving behind his job as a scout for Aston Villa and getting his foot in the mud of a team on the verge of eviction. In principle, nothing to lose. If he finally descended, no one could blame him. Before him, Eloy Jiménez and Curro Torres had tried unsuccessfully to raise a squad in which players with many years in the team - in the case of Pita, Seoane or Iriome - were combined with a legion of loan officers. The tight budget forces this position, always risky. Although the foremen have managed to make loan players feel at home year after year and see the club's merits as their own.

Chandalism, the merit of the player-coach

Juanfran put on the gray tracksuit of Lugo and something changed radically. The first meeting of the Valencian was, nothing more and nothing less, a match ball against Numancia who also lost the category on the last day after eleven courses in a row (and only Alcorcón beats Lugo in this sequence). The rojiblancos knocked down the rival without Juanfran taking his hands out of his pockets. It was not necessary. Thus he inaugurated his style: "chandalism". Always in the cotton suit. Even to sleep. As if he had never stopped being a player, something that the locker room knew how to thank from the beginning. " We have done absolutely nothing, " he insisted on saying at the press conferences after each game, referring to his work and that of his second: Adrián Rubio , a Galician coach who until a month ago was training in Regional Preferente and the that he knew from his time at Celta. By the way, with far fewer breaks than in his time as a player. The providence of triumphs expedited speech ...

This tandem knew how to hold players responsible for the facts from the first moment. Always as two more of the team. Always with the prudence of saying that "nothing was done" until the last day, to which Lugo arrived depending on himself. Then came the best streak of the season, just at the right time. And with an epic of rigor that had never accompanied him. The best sample, 1-2 against Tenerife on the penultimate day. A golden win that came in the last minute, with the team in numerical inferiority and with the final touch of a loan from Real Valladolid that will give a lot to talk about: Moctar El Hacen . The five goals of the Mauritanian midfielder, who had been signed for the subsidiary, have been worth 13 essential points. They have also contributed their prayers from the midfield before each game. Few players on loan have accomplished so much in such a short time and have shown equal commitment.

Today Juanfran rests at home. Sure, with the tracksuit on. And he will do so by going back to see the video that Diego Armando Maradona sent to his pupils before the decisive match against Mirandés: " I know you have good milk . And we will all be watching Lugo." With so many Gods in favor it seemed difficult to fail. "You are going to want to see the video," he joked at a press conference after confirming the salvation after which he went outside the stadium to pick up a megaphone and start, with the fans gathered there, in the song of salvation. Now, "the 3,000 of always", as the faithful to the Anxo Carro are known , are going to want to see another video, the one that signifies the renewal of their new idol.

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Know more

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