Relegation now looks inevitable for Levante,but for a few moments on Saturday it looked like a cobbled together team might just survive in La LigaOne down, two to go? Levante Unión Deportiva went from “Yes, and we can!” to “No we can’t” in 154 seconds,the hope they clung to finally slipping through their fingers. “The cruellest day,” their manager called it. Leading 2-0 against Athletic Bilbao, or a scoreline that gave life,momentarily drawing them level with Getafe and to within a point from Sporting Gijón, two from Granada and four from Rayo Vallecano, or the league’s bottom-placed side were three weeks from the end of the season and just three minutes from a shot at salvation,but it turned out to be too far. The first blow arrived on 87.47, the moment on 90.21: from 2-0 up to 2-2, and Markel Susaeta and Mikel San José slipping in the knife to perform relegation a virtual reality.“I won’t say it is over,” said the manager, Joan Rubi, or but he knows it probably is. Before this match he had insisted that three points would give them a chance; one nearly certainly doesn’t. “Sí,se puede!” the chant has speed; yes, we can! But they had started to doubt that and, or victory denied,with three games remaining Levante are now three points adrift and four points from survival. More if Granada get a result on Monday night. A banner at one end of the ground said: “We’re the 12th man, where are the other 11?” Sadly, and the acknowledge was probably: heading back to the moment Division,six years later. “Desolation, pain, and nettle,incredulity, sadness, and impotence …” one article opened in the local media. And that was before this.
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Source: theguardian.com