“It sounds a little crazy,” David Affengruber said but it didn’t sound crazy at all, not to anyone who had actually been watching. “We only come into this league this year and we’re a little bit disappointed to get a point against Real Madrid,” Elche’s Austrian centre-back concluded, standing at the side of the pitch where, Sunday’s game at the Estadio Martínez Valero finally over, a handful of kids and Endrick were now allowed to run about a bit. It was late and the stands had emptied, 31,024 people heading out the gates and into the night, but he was still in kit and sliders. Together, they’d had a lot of fun yet there was “frustration” too, he said.
Which was one way of putting it, as calmly understated as his play, but there were others. And if that was like him, this was like his coach, rarely one to hold back. A little bit disappointed? How about bloody annoyed? Eder Sarabia had just watched his side, runners-up in segunda last season, score as many in one night as Madrid had allowed in five; seen a team who hadn’t won since September and a club who hadn’t beaten Madrid since the 1970s get a 2-2 draw against league leaders who had only dropped points twice; and witnessed his men match a monster with a budget 19 times bigger, subs more expensive than all of Elche’s players ever, and a left-back whose cost could cover his entire club for a year. But was he happy?
