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Álex Bergantiños - Barcelona's bane. And why I'm scared. (10th July, 2017)

Three of Álex Bergantiños' four goals in La Liga for Depor have been against Barcelona.

Here are those goals.

Scene 1: 12th May, 2017. Riazor.

In the 74th minute, a corner is whipped in from the left wing to the far post, and Jordi Alba, who is marking Álex, watches him rise above him and head the ball into the net.

And this just days after Barcelona overturned a 4-0 deficit and won 6-1 against PSG.



Scene 2: 20th October, 2012. Riazor.

Barcelona were 3-0 up after 17 minutes and cruising, but it went from 0-3 to 2-3 to 2-4 to 3-4 to 3-5 to 4-5 with 12 heart-stopping minutes left.

That game had literally everything: a ludicrously good Leo Messi hat-trick, a yellow card for the least offensive man ever - Juan Carlos Valerón, and the finest own goal ever by Jordi Alba - a delicate volleyed lob over his keeper.

And it was Bergantiños who scored the second for Depor to inspire the comeback.



Scene 3: 12th December, 2015. Camp Nou.

Barcelona are 2-0 up, and all set to maintain their 2 point advantage over Atlético - 4 points over Real Madrid.

However, Lucas Pérez scored in the 76th minute, and 10 minutes later latched on a counter attack that led to Álex's first time shot into the back of the net. He silenced at the Camp Nou.







In a recent email conversation with, I wrote about Rayo, and thought it was worth sharing here...

"The problem with Rayo is they always leave their signings to the literal last minute - I mean in the summer of 2015 they announced two major signings - Javi Guerra and Pablo Hernandez - moments before the transfer window shut down. So not expecting anything anytime soon. Apart from Oscar Trejo, who the club haven't officially announced yet, the only "signings" have been Sergio Akieme being promoted from the B team and Johan Mojica returning from his loan spell (and he's expected to leave), all the transfers have been "out".

...

Ramón Planes, the sporting director, confirmed in a press conference that he had rejected an offer from Maccabi Haifa, and would see out his final year. And then a few days later, shockingly, he resigned. 

...

We've lost Baena, and we're either going to miss him dearly (flashbacks to when we lost Mohamed Diamé in 2009 and couldn't survive without him in the 2009-10 season) or Fran Beltrán is going to deliver massively. Our only center backs are Amaya and Zé Castro (who has reportedly rescinded his contract). Dorado is out of contract but expected to renew. Which means we're either going to miss Castro dearly or the unknown B-teamer Dani Ramos is going to deliver massively.

That's a lot of reliance on B team players. Add to that the certainty of Joni Montiel and Pablo Clavería getting promoted, and the skepticism is definitely warranted.

Plus, there's a noticeable lack of cover - Javi Guerra is our only striker, and Manucho is out of contract (but expected to renew). Our only goalkeeper, Toño, is injured and has been for almost a year. The only player available at right back is Ernesto Galán. 


The thing is, I've always been calm and composed about transfer windows - even when the squad had no first team players I was confident that replacements are available. This is the first year where I've been genuinely scared - the club still needs to balance the books, the team has lost La Liga quality players and replacements are going to be hard to find since other clubs have been doing business quickly and efficiently. Promotion seems to be a distant dream right now - in fact, I'd say relegation is very possible." 

And on that positive note, here's hoping that my fears are wrong!



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