She was there for around 80 minutes, the hope of salvation. But then late on Monday evening a double strike from ex-Bundesliga professional Dodi Lukebakio and Luis Ocampos shocked the fans in the Power Horse Stadium.
{
“placeholderType”: “MREC”
}
After all: Marko Milovanovic scored the 2-2 equalizer for Unión Deportiva (UD) Almería against Sevilla FC in injury time – it was the fourth draw in the last five league games. But that hardly cheered up the home team.
The team from the Andalusian port city is now without a win in a whopping 31 league games in a row. Not only is this a record in La Liga, Almería has now also drawn level with the legendary bad Tasmania Berlin team, who also went 31 games without a win in the 1965/66 season and thus holds the Bundesliga record.
Negative record: Almería throws out coach
The game against Sevilla was apparently too much for the Almería bosses, and on Wednesday afternoon the club announced that they were separating from coach Gaizka Garitano. He is replaced by Pepe Mel, who was most recently active in Crete but has a lot of experience in Spanish football.
{
“placeholderType”: “MREC”
}
The 48-year-old Garitano only took over the Rojiblancos from Vicente Moreno last fall; in 18 league games, the team under Garitano had an underground points average of 0.37 points.
Almería last won a league game ten months ago, beating RCD Mallorca 3-0 on matchday 35 of last season. This season, the Andalusians are the worst team in the top five leagues, the only club without a league win this season.
No wonder those responsible have seen enough. Those responsible are primarily the Saudi official Turki Al-Sheikh, who took over 96 percent of the club’s shares for around 20 million euros in 2019 and put another seven million into debt repayment. Al-Sheikh is considered a close confidant of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Saudi owners keen to invest
Since his takeover, the Andalusian club’s ambitions have increased significantly. This is also shown by a look at the transfer figures; Almería has pumped almost 150 million euros into new players since 2019.
{
“placeholderType”: “MREC”
}
At the start in the summer of 2019, the young Darwin Núnez came from CA Penarol from Uruguay for almost 15 million euros. An impressive sum for a second division team at the time. A year later, the current Liverpool striker moved to Benfica for 34 million euros.
The tactic initially worked. Little by little, Almeriá moved closer to the Spanish top flight, and in the 2022/23 season the club was back in the top flight for the first time since 2015. With 41 points and 17th place, Almería narrowly escaped relegation; one point and the better goal difference separated the Andalusians from direct relegation.
For the current season, the club paid 52 million euros for new players. Only Real and Atlético Madrid spent more money on new signings.
La Liga: Almeria-Abstieg almost beaten
Apparently that didn’t help much: a preliminary decision regarding relegation seems to have already been made this season. With ten points after 28 games and 14 points behind the rescue bank, only the boldest optimists should still have hope for a happy ending.
Especially given the winless streak. The team, in which Sergio Arribas is the top scorer with six goals, came close to ending the curse at one point or another.
At the beginning of the year, Almería was ahead 2-0 against Real Madrid at half-time, but in the end, thanks to a very late goal from Dani Carvajal (90+9th minute), they didn’t even score a point and in the end Alméria lost 2-3 against Carlo Ancelotti’s star ensemble.
Barcelona President Joan Laporta rages over Real’s victory
The loser then raged. “We feel like we have been robbed,” raged Gonzalo Melero. The reason? In the 64th minute, Almería made it 3-1, but the VAR intervened and classified a previous duel between Jude Bellingham and Dion Lopy as a foul by the Almería player. The 21-year-old easily caught the Real star in the face.
But that is the past: the present and future are called Pepe Mel and the probable move to league two. It seems clear: With the Saudi owner Al-Sheikh, resurgence should be the clear goal.
2024-03-17 12:18:24
#worst #team #Europe #team #simply #win
