Granada have completed the impossible task of advancing to the quarter finals of The Europa Legaue. The tournament newcomers will face one of the most decorated teams in football Manchester United at home. Their European qualification success has driven Granada CF into dazzling form.The Andalucian side on the brink of bankruptcy in 2009 has evolved into a European contender after qualifying for the Europa League.
In the early parts of this century, Granada was competing in the underwhelming Spanish fourth division which unexpectedly sparked the arrival of former Real Madrid President Lorenzo Sanz who led the deemed impossible project of returning the southern side to the Spanish top flight.
However, in 2009 the biggest financial difficulty of any renowned Spanish club emerged as Granada was on the verge of utter disaster. A solution was therefore inevitable and a stunning partnership agreement with Udinese was signed. The Pozzo Family became the new owners of the club, adding to their ownership of Udinese and later English team Watford.
Granada shortly returned to the Spanish Second Division after 22 years with it eluding them and they began to progress further with 6 seasons surviving in La Liga until 2016 where yet another president was introduced in the form of Chinese businessman Jiang Lizhang.
After topping the table for 10 games in La Liga as newcomers, in the 2019/2020 season they finished in 7th which historically granted them entry to their first ever European competition!
Granada this season have been on a remarkable run on their inaugural appearance in the Europa League after finishing 2nd in their group and shocking previous winners and European titan Napoli after a tense 3-2 victory across two legs. Current manager Martinez told Spanish press in his post-match interview that the game was a 'brutal exercise in survival' and 'like something out of a Hichcock film'.
This was after four of his players had to go off in the tie due to his ruthless decision of playing Roberto Soldado, Jesus Vallejo and Yangel Hererra who were all unsure to play. However, they celebrated in passionate fashion and in the words of player Antonio Puertas 'never gave up and fought to the end'.
Granada have played the most games of any club in the entirety of Europe yet still have advanced to the last 8 with some sort of squad left.
Diego Martinez was a big influence to the shift in culture at Granada and was appointed at just 37 years of age after limited experience at Sevilla as Unai Emery's assistant coach.
The Argentinian obtained a degree at university in sports science which has unprecedentedly led him to manage Europa League Last 16 contenders Granada CF.
Their success story has also been widely credited to recruiting players on loan. Domingos Quina who is on loan from Watford was convinced by the club to sign as they wanted to play Quina in his favoured number 8 role. Also, Real Madrid centre-back Vallejo has driven the team as well as loanee Manchester City midfielder Herrera who has netted 8 times this season.
Scoring in 80% of their matches and 52% of the time scoring first, can Granada use this to overcome Manchester United and accomplish their dream in the next stage of the Europa League in April to stagger Spanish Football?
0 Post a Comment:
Post a Comment