Players cried and fans tumbled down terraces as the league’s worst team finally tasted victory with a novice in charge
Something amazing happened on Saturday: Levante Unión Deportiva won a game of football. “How lovely! I’m very emotional. How lovely it is to win, to feel this again,” their captain, “commander” José Luis Morales, said when the longest wait ever was at last over, a little hope let in at 3.54pm on 8 January 2022. They hadn’t experienced this since 10 April 2021, eight weeks from the end of last season. They hadn’t experienced this at all. That day, Levante defeated Eibar 1-0. Since then, nine months and 27 matches passed, every team in primera: they didn’t beat any of them.
Twenty weeks into the season, 273 days later, this weekend at last they did. Officially the worst team in La Liga history – Sporting Gijón’s 24-game winless run from 1998 was surpassed a month ago – on Saturday afternoon Levante defeated Real Mallorca 2-0. “No, it’s not the Champions League, but it’s a first,” their coach said. It might still prove to be nothing, relegation a reality, only this moment will always be something. “The best gift The Three Kings could bring,” Morales called it, having recovered from Covid and come on to clinch victory.
