Not even Scaloni’s support came to Deportivo La Coruña, who lost promotion to Segunda with Albacete

Deportivo La Coruña, a team that less than two decades ago joined the best teams in Europe, was on the verge of getting promotion to the second division of Spanish football this Saturday, but that didn’t happen because they failed to keep the 1- 1 draw with Albacete and lost 2-1 in extra time in the final of one of the First RFEF Footters playoffs (the third category). Thus, their rival was promoted to the Second Division after only one year.

The Galician club could not benefit from its best position in the regular phase of the tournament, nor did it receive the support of its people at the Riazor stadium in La Coruña nor that of the coach of the Argentine national team, Lionel Scaloni, who wore the team jersey for eight years.

Deportivo, who in the regular phase of the tournament had finished second in group 1 (behind Racing de Santander) and had eliminated Linares in one of the semifinals, took the lead with a goal from Mario Soriano in the 24th minute of the first half, but Albacete, who had been third in group 2 and had left Rayo Majadahonda on the street, equalized in the 37th minute of the second period with Alberto Jiménez.

In a surprising form of resolution, the match was extended into overtime, in which if there weren’t so many, the draw would not have led to penalties, as usually happens, but would have given Deportivo promotion for the best position during the regular phase of the competition.

However, in the 114th minute of play, Jordi Sánchez scored a great goal that earned him promotion to Albacete. The brutal header of the La Mancha striker certifies the comeback and leaves his team very close to the Second Division, which finally materializes with Rubén de la Barrera, former Deportivo coach on the bench.

In this way, it will be the 25th time that the La Mancha team will play in the second category of Spanish football after having achieved an incredible comeback. While Deportivo La Coruña repeated what happened last season with Badajoz, who played in their stadium and didn’t even get the long-awaited promotion.

In this way, the A Coruña team will continue another year in the third division, in which they were relegated on 20 July 2020. Two years earlier, on 29 April 2018, they had lost their place in the first category.

The match was played at the Riazor stadium in La Coruña, despite the playoff games being played on a neutral pitch. This was because the venues for the decisive clashes had been defined by the Spanish Football Association before the names of the teams that would play in the duels were known.

The location in fact meant that the vast majority of the 27,215 spectators present were supporters of the Deportivo. Only 3,000 Albacete fans accompanied their team to the final. Several hours before kick-off, thousands of people had crowded the streets near the Colosseum awaiting the arrival of the bus carrying the players.

Among those who lived the previous one with euphoria was Lionel Scaloni, who on his Twitter account shared a message of encouragement for the team in which he played 301 games, scored 18 goals and won four titles between 1998 and 2005.

The passage of Scaloni through the sport which took place in the most successful period in the history of the club, which between the last decade of the last century and the first of the current one won its only Scudetto in the Spanish league in the 1999/2000 season and was vice-champion four times, has won two Copa del Rey (in 1995 and 2002) and reached the Champions League semi-finals in 2004.

The party, however, ended quickly for Deportivo, whose share package has belonged to the Galician bank Abanca since July 2020. Albacete, meanwhile, will return to professional football next season (the third division will not).