New Real Madrid head coach Alvaro Arbeloa suffered a nightmare start to life in what is arguably football’s highest-pressured job after the La Liga giants were knocked out of the Copa del Rey last 16 by second division minnows Albacete on Wednesday.
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New Real Madrid head coach Alvaro Arbeloa suffered a nightmare start to life in what is arguably football’s highest-pressured job after the La Liga giants were knocked out of the Copa del Rey last 16 by second division minnows Albacete on Wednesday.
Piling on the misery for a club which at the weekend lost the Spanish Super Cup final 3-2 to bitter rival FC Barcelona, the 17th-ranked team in the Segunda Division gave its fans memories to last a lifetime with a gutsy win by the same margin over the 15-time Champions League winners which was dramatically sealed in the 94th minute.
Taking over from the fired Xabi Alonso on Monday, Arbeloa handed starts to some Castilla youngsters but also fielded big stars including Vinicius Jr., Fede Valverde and Arda Guler.
Flat since his $70 million transfer from River Plate last summer, Franco Mastantuono was also given the nod for Arbeloa’s first match and repaid the faith shown in him by the new coach by scoring an equalizer on the stroke of half time just a few minutes after Javier Villar del Fraile put the hosts in front.
When substitute Jefte Betancour put Albacete ahead again on 81 minutes, David could be forgiven for already dreaming about a place in the quarter finals at Goliath’s expense.
Coming up with big goals as per usual, however, Gonzalo Garcia pulled one back as stoppage time began.
But in the 94th minute, Betancor had another plot twist up his sleeve by chipping Andriy Lunin.
As a consequence, he sent Albacete and its fans into seventh heaven plus the next round, as last season’s finalist Real Madrid was eliminated in a fairytale giantkilling.
What remains for Real Madrid this season?
After losing the Super Cup final and being knocked out of the Copa del Rey, Real Madrid now has just two pieces of silverware to possibly win.
In La Liga, it was five points in front of Barca after winning a tough October Clasico 2-1, yet a series of draws and defeats which contributed to Alonso’s downfall mean that Hansi Flick’s men currently lead by four after their 10-game winning streak in all competitions.
Real Madrid is still alive in the Champions League too where it looks set for automatic qualification to the knockout phase, but asking Arbeloa to deliver the ultimate crown in his first five months of elite management is a big ask from a relative rookie. At the same time, they probably said that about Zinedine Zidane when he took over the Bernabeu reins in January 2016 and went on an historic ‘threepeat’ run in the UCL.