Already relegated, Real Valladolid loses against Alavés in Laliga
Coudet’s men secure their survival with a goal from the Motilla del Palancar native.
Vitoria will continue to enjoy Primera Division football next season. Coudet ‘s team needed to win in Pucela to avoid any scares on the final day, and they returned home with their work done and a chance to stay in the league. All it took was another clean sheet and a goal from a 35-year-old who’s enjoying a second youth. Kike García, with 13 goals, has become Vitoria’s lifeline.
In his second season as an Alavés player , the Motilla de Palancar native is close to completing his best season as a Primera Division player. A journeyman like Kike deserved to be dressed as a hero to seal his team’s survival. His shot didn’t flinch from the penalty spot, and his goal has already become part of the Vitorian team’s history.
Coudet ‘s team started the match with very clear ideas, not even bothering to look at what was happening in Las Palmas. Guridi was the first to test his mettle. Hein was brilliant in saving a slanted ball from Kike García, another clearance from a cross from the wing… And so it was until Cenk brought down Tenaglia . It had to be from the penalty spot that the visitors would have taken the lead. By then, it seemed that the game would be a placid affair for Coudet ‘s team . Nothing could be further from the truth. After Aleñá squandered a counterattack that seemed impossible to spoil, Valladolid’s first big warning came. Álvaro Rubio ‘s team went into the break feeling like they were still in the game.
Vitorian suffering
The second half brought a triple substitution for the home side that injected the energy Valladolid had lacked for months. As the minutes ticked by, the pressure tightened, and Coudet ‘s men suffered more . Their suffering would be rewarded: survival.
Sivera multiplied , Mouriño did the same , and Facundo Garcés performed a miracle in the form of a goal save . Vitoria is in the First Division thanks to a defense that has grown week after week to become one of Coudet’s great bastions. Garcés’s great defensive action unleashed euphoria in the visiting stands and released much of the tension that Alavés has built up for many weeks.
Pucela bids farewell to the First Division in a season to forget, but with a well-deserved ovation and tribute to a footballer like Anuar, who left Valladolid with honors. Alavés completes the miracle of survival, a permanence that Luis García began to build and that Coudet has finally sealed . El Glorioso is in the First Division, and Kike even more so.
