Spain
La Liga
Sunday 9th February 2020
Kick Off 18.30 Actual 18.32
Real Club Celta Vigo 2 Sevilla F.C. 1, attendance 20,375
23’ 0-1
78’ 1-1
90’+1, 2-1
@ Estadio de Balaidos
Avenida de Balaidos
36210 Vigo
€30 Admission, Print at Home Ticket
No Programme.
Problems obtaining tickets for this match led to us buying the tickets for our other matches at the stadiums on the day. Celta finally put the tickets on sale on the Tuesday before the match, but the website immediately crashed, not helped by the fact they had decided to offer members the chance to buy up to 4 tickets each at just €5 per ticket. By the following day it was back up and running, but not long enough to obtain tickets. As a way of an apology, they said members could now obtain two tickets free of charge. Our chances of getting tickets were now looking slimmer. It was late on Thursday evening before I managed to choose our seats online, but the website went down again before completing the transaction! Finally, two tickets were purchased. Or so I thought. The money was taken, but the e-mail came through saying there was a problem issuing the tickets. Even worse, there was no reference number! The bank was contacted and they confirmed that Celta had taken the €60 (2 tickets) from the account. An hour and a half later, another e-mail appeared, this time containing the tickets to download. Phew!
The Estadio de Balaidos was opened in 1928, undergoing renovation in 2004, then again from 2015-18. Capacity is apparently somewhere between 29,000-31,000, depending where you read, but it is more likely lower than both those figures, especially if you take into account that tonight’s attendance was just over 20,000 and there was no way there were another 9,000 empty seats.
Just like Valladolid last night, this is a stadium that hosted matches during the 1982 World Cup Finals. It hosted three group 1 games, involving Italy versus Poland, Peru and Cameroon respectively. The two side stands look far more modern, with cladding on the outside masking the older structure below. The exterior of the two goal ends is more likely original. The stadium was easily walkable from our hotel, which was a real bonus, as there seemed no obvious parking at, or near the stadium. When entering the ground we had another first, when we had to produce our passports to confirm the number matched that on the ticket.
Celta had started the weekend sitting in 19th place (Out of 20) in the league table, but were actually bottom at the time of kicking off the match, as R.C.D. Espanyol had climbed above them by winning their game earlier in the day. Sevilla were fourth and on the evidence of the first half, they would comfortably maintain their position. A mistake by the full back saw En-Nesyri break through and clip the ball past the on rushing ‘keeper to open the scoring for the visitors. Three more one on one chances were wasted, but it didn’t really matter as Celta never threatened. The second half was a complete turnaround. As bad as Celta were in the first half, Sevilla were equally as poor in the second. The game looked to be drifting to a dull 0-1 result, then out of nothing Celta levelled the scores. The ball was taken around the ‘keeper by Iago Aspas, who forced his shot in at the near post, despite two defenders best efforts to keep it out. It was one way traffic from here. Celta attacked at every opportunity and just as we entered stoppage time, the Sevilla defence were unable to prevent the ball being played across the box and second half substitute Sisto fired in the winning goal that went in off the far post.
It was an unlikely outcome, with Celta trailing as we entered the last quarter of an hour, but the win was enough to lift them out of the relegation zone on 20 points. The bottom three clubs all have 18 points.
