This was the 12 hours (disaster included) of Real Madrid in the epicenter of the Covid in Spain

In front of the doors of

the Sant Roc School

, families gather waiting for the schoolchildren to leave.

They pull them back home because, although the rays of the sun illuminate the cross that presides over the Mount of the Preventorio, a fine rain increases the melancholy feeling in

Alcoy

.

Life was put on pause again on January 7, when the

coronavirus

indexes began to escalate,

placing it at the head of the country and bringing the city to closure.

No one seemed to notice that

just 20 meters away, the small Colón street is cut off.

The fences prevented the passage to pedestrians.

Nobody could approach the Ciutat d'Alcoi hotel because there he was, almost incognito, the

Real Madrid

.

Or so they believed. The same day that bars, restaurants and even parks were closed in the city, the

Deportivo Alcoyano

eliminated Huesca in the

King's Cup

and just 24 hours later he celebrated with joy that his next rival would be the white team.

In memory, the visit nine years ago, which burst El Collao and visited the streets in blue and white.

The Covid took any celebration on Wednesday, because it is not difficult to imagine what Alcoyano's victory would have been in a situation without a pandemic.

What would have been crowded streets and partying until dawn was left with car horns and some voices on the balconies.

Until the final defeat, Real Madrid passed through the city almost incognito: barely 12 hours from when he arrived at the hotel until, after the game -extension included-, he headed, humiliated, to the airport to return to the capital. uncontrolled pandemic, few are getting rid of the virus and even the club has had logistical difficulties to prepare the stadium:

the president and the manager tested positive the same Wednesday

.

It is the city with more than 40,000 inhabitants with the highest incidence in the country:

2,407 cases per 100,000 inhabitants

.

That is why the obsession of the authorities was to avoid any concentration or agglomeration at all costs.

It was not zeal to protect the stars from the ball, it was the need to contain the euphoria and, with it, any risk of spread.

They got it halfway.

"Come run, there's the bus!"

Jordi told his friends on the phone.

They weren't going to break the rules but, with a Madridista mask and a safety distance, they hoped to greet "Zidane, Benzema ..." He and his friends were barely a dozen and they pretended to be clueless, next to a bus stop. bus and at the doors of a shopping center that, among so many restrictions, runs at half gas.

More rogues tried to be María and Sonia, two fifteen-year-olds who were stationed at the emergency exit of the hotel, until the police caught them.

Your wish:

"See Isco and Asensio up close"

, they counted half blushed.

Oblivious to everything, in their bubble, the players knew they were in Alcoy just from the views from their rooms to the imposing San Jordi bridge that crosses the Serpis river to unite the two sides of the city.

At the time of departure, a hundred Madridistas and onlookers came to see their team off.

Prudence was forgotten for a few minutes: not a kilometer separates the hotel from the El Collao stadium, where the white disaster would later occur.

To get there you have to go through the imposing

Oliver Civil Hospital

, a 19th century building converted into the Domus VI nursing home, in which 73 of its 139 residents died during the first wave of the pandemic.

Closed tightly, it is the living memory that this virus kills.

Batoi

, in the suburbs, it surrounds the field that they have striven to recover from the Filomena snows, which can still be seen on the peaks of the Font Roja.

Right in front of the stadium, the blind is down.

Bar Colonia

, which would have boiled and made the best box of the year if there had been an audience in the "no game" on Wednesday.

"Many fans gather here before football. It has all the walls full of photos of Deportivo Alcoyano teams," explains a neighbor who plays the clueless walking the dog but does not take his eyes off the movements at the gates of the field.

Flags on the balconies

There are many who decided to bundle up and take a walk around the surroundings.

In a steep neighborhood, climbing up the slopes, it is easy to find a promontory from which to see the entrance of the teams.

Sincerely, the entrance of Real Madrid, because Vicente Parras' players arrived on foot, calmly.

The attraction was Real Madrid and the best place to see Zidane's men get off the bus was the open field next to Batoi Park. On the balconies, two or three Deportivo flags, because here Alcoyano is Deportivo.

It was the way to timidly join the club's desire to party at home.

Not even the mayor, Toni Francés, wanted to preside over the party to set an example.

The morale of this hobby is legendary and it even has a monolith next to the field, but these days it is divided between football and the boredom that generates a pandemic that does not get off the fingers. There is a lot of symbol behind this historical team that passes for a difficult economic time.

Rescued by local businessmen after promotion to Second B, he has debts that complicate his future and that little will alleviate the visit of Real Madrid.

Nor that of his next rival, once the feat is accomplished.

He received the whites to the rhythm of

Wake me up

(Wake me up) by Avicii and with a legend on the walls of the centenary stadium: "We die for you, win for us."

Win they wanted.

Die, not one more in Alcoy.

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