2024-05-12 01:50:02
This match marked the beginning of the rise of the hero’s career this season.
Xabi Alonso reached the Europa League final with Bayer. As reported by İdman.biz with reference to the “Championship”, an outstanding season for the 42-year-old coach, who became a real hero of this year, could end with winning three trophies. Leverkusen has already won gold in the Bundesliga, and there are two decisive matches ahead in the League of Legends and the German Cup.
The championship with Bayer is the first title in Xabi Alonso’s career as a coach. But in the final he already played and won. We are talking about this match, which few people know about.
Europa League. 1/2 finals. 2nd match
09 May 2024, Thursday. 23:00
Bayer (Leverkusen, Germany) – Roma (Rome, Italy) – 2:2
0:1 Paredes – 43′ 0:2 Paredes – 66′ 1:2 Mancini – 82′ 2:2 Stanisic – 90+7′
Xabi Alonso retired as a player in the summer of 2017 at Bayern. The last final for the Basque as a football player was the match for the German Super Cup with Borussia Dortmund. In August 2016, Munich team leader Carlo Ancelotti, as now, outplayed Thomas Tuchel. Bayern defeated Borussia with a score of 2:0. Xabi Alonso spent 90 minutes on the field and earned a yellow card for arguing with the referee. Of course, this was far from the most important final in his life; the smartest midfielder was already thinking about coaching.
Xabi Alonso returned to his native land – where he began his professional career. In the summer of 2019, he headed the Real Sociedad farm club. However, the Basque first took UEFA coaching courses. In 2018, when the Spanish national team was eliminated by Russia at the World Cup, the former midfielder of the national team “sat at the desk” along with Xavi, Raul, Victor Valdes, Joan Capdevila and other yesterday’s stars who decided to master a new craft. For practice, I trained the children of Real Madrid (U14) a little.
The Real Sociedad farm club played in the third division and took 12th place in its group at the end of the 2018/2019 season. Finished just one point from the cut-off zone. But in the first season under the leadership of Xabi Alonso, the Basque youth rose to fifth place. Only five points were missing to qualify for the playoffs for promotion to the second division. However, the tournament was ended early due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In the next season 2020/2021, the Real Sociedad farm club still earned a ticket to the playoffs for a place in the Segunda. To get promoted, Xabi Alonso’s team had to win two matches in May 2021 – first the semi-final against Andorra and then the final. In case of victory, the Real Sociedad farm club would rise to the second division for the first time since the 1961/1962 season.
The first semi-final with Andorra among the youth of Real Sociedad included several players whom we now know as the main players of Imanol Alguacil. Under the leadership of novice coach Xabi Alonso, defender Jon Pacheco, midfielders Jon Ander Olasagasti and Urko Gonzalez, and striker Jon Carricaburu played. And midfielder Beñat Turrientes sat on the bench.
The Real Sociedad farm club earned a penalty in the seventh minute and took the lead, but conceded a free kick before the break. In a tough game, Xabi Alonso was forced to replace two players due to injuries. The referee handed out 11 yellow cards, and one of the Andorran players received two and was sent off. The game went into extra time, where Alex Pastor from Andorra received a straight red card. Thus, rival Real Sociedad was left with nine players. Andorra did not last until the penalty shootout, because in the 113th minute Julen Lobete (ironically its current player) scored the winning goal for Xabi Alonso’s team.
A week later, the farm club Real Sociedad was waiting for the final with Algeciras. Amazing events took place in this match. Xabi Alonso seems to attract non-trivial stories: just remember the Champions League final between Milan and Liverpool with his participation, when the British turned 0:3 into 3:3 and won a penalty shootout.
In the match with Algeciras, youngster Xabi Alonso also withstood a powerful attack (by the way, Turrientes was already playing in the starting lineup). The judge showed 10 yellow cards, and again there was no removal. But the Basques needed a comeback to solve the problem. The teams played more than a half without scoring, and in the 50th minute, Real Sociedad defender Imanol Escurdia scored a header into his own goal. Very disappointing!
But it turned out that this was not the last own goal in the final. A quarter of an hour later, Xabi Alonso’s team bounced back thanks to Algeciras defender Jordi Figueras cutting the ball into their own goal. Former Rubin player, remember this one? As a result, in this match too, the teams did not have 90 minutes to determine the strongest. The serious battle continued in overtime, where everything was decided by Carricaburu’s goal in the 105th minute. Xabi Alonso got it right with the substitution. The forward did everything well – he took control of the penalty area with three touches. And in the 117th minute, Fran Serrano from Algeciras received a straight red card. The opponent was broken.
“This historic achievement for the club makes me very proud and happy,” Xabi Alonso admitted after winning the final with Algeciras. “It belongs to everyone, and we should celebrate it properly.” This is the culmination of an impressive year. My message was that we have to remain who we have been all season. If we change, we won’t be able to play our football… The players acted maturely for such a young team in a high-pressure match. It was difficult, but we did very well.”
This is how Xabi Alonso won his first final as a coach. The Real Sociedad farm club jumped into the second division 60 years later, however, it couldn’t stay there and flew back a year later. After which the young coach of the young team decided to leave. He was right again, because within three months he headed Bayer. Xabi Alonso will surely withstand the pressure of the decisive battle for the Europa League cup, because he already knows how to win finals.
İdman.biz