The year that Seville, Betis and Atlético fell to the Second Division
In the year 2000 the world did not end as a large part of the population feared with the so-called ‘Effect 2000‘, but a historic event did happen in Spanish football. until the season 1999/2000 only eight teams had been able to win La Liga. eight sets of 54 that they had trodden the maximum category in the 69 years of life that the competition had at that time. And of those eight, of that small number of favorites, three would debut the millennium walking towards the well of the Second Division.
descent of 2000, the year that saw Seville descend, Atlético and Betis to the hell of Second
starting from the bottom, as colista of that season 99/00 there was Sevilla FC. in the number position 20, with only 28 points (5V, 13E, 20D), those of Nervión would descend to the silver category for the fourth time in their history. and last.
A team in free fall that had the relegation sealed in the card weeks before the end of the competition, but that he would have a lot to decide in his last breaths. And it is that the Sánchez-Pizjuán would be the stage in which those in white and red would dress as judges and sentence a team to go with them hand in hand to Second.
That team would be none other than Real Betis Balompié. A match that would face Seville and Oviedo and in which, if the Asturians won, Sevillian football would lose its highest representatives in the first category. So it was. An apathetic Seville would lose 2-3 at home in joy (and controversy) of his hobby.
That year in Second would lack relevant players, since the most veteran had retired and others had been transferred with the aim of obtaining capital (Marchena, Jesuli y Tsartas), but he had an AS up his sleeve: Joaquin Caparrós. A new coach who made the team, in his first year at the club, champion three days in advance.
That would not be the first time that Sevilla and Betis sank together into the abyss of the classification and were condemned to change competition. In the 67/68, the two eternal rivals of the Andalusian capital went down to hell. Like in the 2000, the classification of that season would leave Sevilla FC as bottom (with 20 points and in the number position 16, since before there was only this number of teams in Primera) and condemned to the first descent in its history with Juan Arza at the helm.
Real Betis went hand in hand with the help of their greatest rival
As "spoliabamos" a few paragraphs ago, Another of the teams that would end the season descending to Second would be Betis. I would do it on the job 18 with 42 points (11V, 9E y 18D), three below Numancia and Real Oviedo.
That season the Verdiblancos had a great squad with strikers like Pepe Gálvez (10 goals), to finish (8 goals) the cuellar (8 goals), but a streak of 11 games without victory in the second round led the team to hang by a thread a few weeks before the end of the competition. That would be the 9th descent of those of Villamarín, to which would happen the 2009 Y 2014.
And the bomb came, the fall of a colossus, Atlético de Madrid
We already had two of the descendants in that season, but one was missing. and not just any. One that had won nine trophies in the highest national category up to then: Atlético de Madrid (9V, 11E, 18D).
the mattress makers, that they did not set foot in the Second Division since 1934, They looked at the beginning of the millennium with a dream team full of stars, like Molina, Deck of cards, Hasselbaink (who was the third top scorer in the League), Kiko, Solar, the valeron, and with an exciting project led by Claudio Ranieri, falling into the silver category pit.
After a succession of coaches, and at the gates of the end of the League, Antic took over (again) of an Atlético de Madrid on the verge of eviction. A draw against Malaga, a defeat at Mestalla and the win against FC Barcelona at home left the colchoneros in a life or death situation. Or go to Oviedo at home or if Iban on Monday.
during that match (corresponding to the day 36) against the Asturians, and like almost all year, Atleti fought in agony minute by minute, even going up a 0-2 against. There was just a bit left that never came, and the missed penalty by Hasselbaink sentenced the rojiblancos to hell in the Second Division after 70 Consecutive years in the top flight.
paradoxically, Atleti was still alive in the Cup and was able to reach the final despite knowing their sad fate for the next campaign. A whole poisoned apple. that meeting, far from redeeming them, they would end up flogging them. Atlético de Madrid would be runner-up, with an economic disaster on his hands and submerged in the darkest chapter in the history of the club. And to top it off after his descent of 2000, He was thrashed by Levante in his first Second Division game by 4-1. would return in 2002 by the hand of the eternal Luis Aragonés.
