Monday's Good Day, Bad Day - Round 38

Good Day 

Osasuna / Recreativo / Valladolid

All three started the day out of the drop zone. And all three finished the day out of the drop zone, despite their best efforts. 

The already knee-trembling tension was pumped up a little more for these relegation rivals on Sunday when a rainstorm over the Mallorca stadium threatened to postpone all the matches to Monday evening. However, after a one hour delay all kicked off. Some damper than others.

Aside from a nine-minute spell in the Segunda for Recreativo, all clubs lived to fight another day thanks to the failure of Zaragoza in the newly-named, 'Oh No Estadi.'

The normally hard as nails Cuco Ziganda went down a peg or two in La Liga Loca's estimations by shedding a tear in the post match press conference.

"I'm in love with life as we are in the Primera," cried the Osasuna coach. Hopefully before burning an ant or two with a magnifying class to make up for this slip. 

Racing Santander

A late, late strike from Iván Bolado meant that Racing could wave a finger or two in Mallorca's direction and claim a UEFA Cup place - the first time anything remotely exciting has happened at the Cantabrian club in 95 years.

"It's just reward for the season's work of a humble squad," claimed Marcelino - a man who may still stay at the Sardinero next season despite a number of big clubs fluttering their eyelids at him.

As Marca pointed out, a decent striker and they'd have been pushing for the Champions League this year.

Villarreal

The Yellow Submarine ending the campaign at full throttle after their win over Deportivo - their sixth in a row.

"We ended up with more points than Real Madrid did in 2006/07," pointed out Manuel Pellegrini, whose club has been boosted by the news that Sol Campbell is set to see out his retirement on the south coast rather than in Spain.

"I am happy here and see no reason to leave," declared the newly crowned FA Cup winner. The Champions League, perhaps?

Levante

The promise of two friendly matches against Real Madrid brought Levante off their strike, only a few hours after it had begun. And it's a sign of desperation from a squad who knew that even these small crumbs from Real Madrid's cake were better than bugger all.

And they gave it a bit of a go on Sunday night with two goals against stand-in, stand-in keeper Jordi Codina. Let's just hope that it wasn't the last we will be seeing of lowly Levante.

Giovani dos Santos

At the beginning of the season, La Liga Loca wrote that Giovani was going to be the new Ronaldinho. And in a way, the blog was right. But not in a good way.

Rumours are abound that Giovani has been joining his Brazilian buddy on his own particular training regime for much of the season, causing his disappointing displays and fuelling stories that he was to be banished by Barça to Man City.

However, the Mexican made a name for himself in Murcia on Saturday night with his first, second and third league strikes of the season. And the final two were absolute peaches. And they may help ensure that he won't be sent packing to the Premier League over the summer.

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