Five highlights from April
Goalfests, a big night out, Roman ruins and most importantly, an incredible tortilla. April wasn’t a bad month really!
Greetings from Madrid!
April has been very much a “back to normal” month (well until the very end, but we’ll get to that) as I’ve been able to get around more easily and resume more of my regular routine. I also had the Easter break so that gave me the opportunity to go to a bit more football than normal, somewhat making up for lost time.
So here are a few selected highlights from over the last month of football in and around Madrid.
1. The end of the jinx
As I mentioned last time, I hadn’t seen Villaverde win all season. In fact, I hadn’t seen them win a match of any consequence in exactly a year (I’m not entirely sure I can count a victory over a Pinto side which was basically already relegated and mostly comprised of youth team players last May) before CU Collado Villalba rolled into town at the start of April. This was a big game, with the two sides battling for a place in the promotion playoffs and Botti were in control from the off, two great goals in the first half set the tone and although Villalba pulled one back before the break, it didn’t disrupt their dominance, two more really well-worked goals early in the second half effectively killed the game as a contest. Another Villalba goal and a late Botti penalty made it 5-2, my highest-scoring game of 2025 so far (a record that wouldn’t last long - keep reading) and another huge step towards booking a playoff place.
For me, it was a huge milestone as it was the first time I’d properly been together with a large group of friends since my accident and surgery. It was great to catch up with people and share a few stories from my recovery.
2. Remember El Álamo (more for the tortilla than the football)
El Álamo is a ground which had eluded me for over five years. I’d come close to visiting it back in 2020, in what was the final weekend of football before everything shut down in Spain, only to end up deciding to only visit nearby Navalcarnero that day. So at the start of the Easter holidays, I finally managed to get there, setting an early alarm to make it down to Cuatro Vientos to meet a few of the other Botti regulars on the 9:30am bus. Our destination was the Estadio Facundo Rivas, El Álamo v Villaverde.
Upon completing the journey, it was off to the centre of the town and a stop for breakfast at La Andaluza, where I had an incredible pintxo of Tortilla for breakfast and we enjoyed more great conversation.
After the walk to the ground, the game itself was an eventful affair. Villaverde made a number of changes to the team that had beaten Villalba so convincingly and they struggled to get any sort of rhythm going against a team who did not play like they were bottom of the league. Twice Botti went behind, twice they levelled, there were chances to win the game but they also were quite fortunate to concede further goals themselves. A point was fair in the end and helps keep the playoff dream going.
3. Back in the big leagues
A rare Monday night game for Atlético Madrid corresponded nicely with my Easter break from work and I considered a night out at a La Liga game as an appropriate reward for all the progress in my recovery. It would also prove an interesting test of my ability to negotiate a large crowd on crutches.
It turns out that I can still move faster than the majority of Spanish matchgoers when the issue of trying to get in the ground ahead of kick off is concerned. It didn’t help that my ticket was on the opposite side of the ground from the Metro exit, guaranteeing me a long journey whichever path I took, but avoiding numerous groups of people ambling aimlessly around the concourse. But I made it in with about five minutes to spare before the action got underway.
Over the previous month, Atlético’s season had taken a serious nose-dive with elimination from the Champions League in controversial fashion by Real Madrid and defeat by Barcelona in the Copa del Rey semi-final, with lots of dropped points along the way making victory here essential if they were to stand any chance of clinging to Barça and Madrid’s coattails in the title race. But what Valladolid would give for Atlético’s problems… Their entire season has been abject from the off, something you could maybe even date back to last season’s promotion celebrations where coach Paulo Pezzolano chanted “Pezzolano dimisión” in reference to the fans frequent demands for him to be fired throughout the campaign. Needless to say, he didn’t make it to Christmas this term and his successor lasted even less time in the hot seat meaning they were on their third coach of the season by the time they rolled up at the Metropolitano. They were also in the process of recording one of the worst La Liga seasons in the three points for a win era. In the away section in the corner above me, most of the fans ire was directed at their president, Brazilian legend Ronaldo, who has announced his desire to sell the club, but hasn’t done much to advance the process.
They didn’t even put away the “Ronaldo vete ya” signs when they took a surprise lead after a VAR-awarded penalty (the lengthy delay for that is not something I’ve missed at lower league games) but Atlético turned it around to lead at the break with a penalty of their own from Julian Álvarez (he only kicked it once this time) and then a brilliant finish from Giuliano Simeone.
Valladolid levelled from a free kick after the break but another penalty from Álvarez and a goal from substitute Sørloth gave Atlético an advantage that the visitors couldn’t come back from.
The real highlight of the evening probably came in my interactions with the people in front of me. After the game got underway, I saw a father taking a photo of his daughter with the stadium as the background, I offered to take a photo of them together, which he accepted and having approved of my camerawork, he told me that this was his daughter’s first match and it meant a lot to have a proper photo of them together. Throughout the game he turns round to offer his thoughts on the action and after a trip to get some refreshments at the break, I was even offered some popcorn. Further proof of my theory that football is just a sideshow for the human interactions and responses that it provokes.
4. An unexpected partidazo
Real Madrid Femenino were seemingly coasting to victory over Madrid CFF when Alba Redondo’s second of the night put them 3-1 ahead early in the second half. Yet within minutes, the visitors, who had barely threatened outside of their goal (itself more down to calamitous defending than anything else) were suddenly level at 3-3.
The remainder of the game was a predictable Real Madrid onslaught, they’d finish with 22 shots on goal, but eventually it took an own goal to break their opponents’ stubborn resistance. And then the floodgates opened… First Caroline Weir added a fifth, Filippa Angeldal added a sixth from distance and then in almost the last minute of the unexpectedly long eight minutes of added time, Linda Caicedo slalomed through an exhausted defence to score the final goal, leaving the score a scarcely-believable 7-3.
I’m not entirely sure I’ve ever seen a match with this exact scoreline before - definitely not in a competitive match. The closest I can find is a Coleraine pre-season friendly which finished 7-4 (the four mostly being the result of an injury which meant Coleraine’s goalkeeping coach had to go between the posts).
5. Football meets history
My footballing April came to an end with a rather more sedate morning, a trip on the Renfe Cercanias train out to La Garena, just outside Alcalá de Henares and a new ground for the game between Neumaticos Cervantes and Remar CF.
I wasn’t really there for the football (though an exciting 2-2 draw was a bonus) or the ground (a pitch out the back of a Polideportivo) but rather because this might be one of the few places in the world where you can combine a football match with a free visit to a Roman archaeological site.
Almost slap bang in the middle of the polideportivo complex (but accessed through a different entrance) is the Casa de Hippolytus, a partially preserved Roman bath house from the ancient settlement of Complutum, which would become modern-day Alcalá de Henares. It was a lovely change of pace from the football, with the site empty apart from the one member of staff present which meant I was able to wander around at my own leisure and read all the information and take lots of photos of the mosaics and stonework.
Bonus: Historic non-football related event.
Monday 28th April started out like a regular weekday. I went to work, did my morning classes and was just washing my hands in the bathroom when the light bulb flickered and went out. “That’ll need replaced,” I thought to myself. Then as I walked past the office on my way out, my boss told me that the power had gone out and upon going outside it became evident that the same was true for the neighbouring buildings. Localised power cuts aren’t uncommon, especially when there’s building work going on so I thought little more of it. I went to catch the bus home and just as I boarded, I received a text from my wife saying that our power had gone off too. Getting off my bus at Plaza de Castilla, I soon realised that this was something pretty big, all the shops and cafés had gone dark, offices had emptied with everyone waiting out on the street for the power to come back on. But it was only when I got a message from a friend in Barcelona asking “Is your power off too?” that I realised the true scale of what was going on.
What we were experiencing was soon dubbed the “apagón” a massive blackout that was affecting all of Spain, Portugal, Andorra and some parts of the south of France. Electricity had been cut off, public transport apart from buses ground to a halt, shops couldn’t operate card readers and within a couple of hours, regular phone signal had vanished too.
We were fortunate in that we have a gas stove, so we were still able to cook something for lunch, using as many of our perishable ingredients as possible. But as the afternoon wore on, with no end of the situation in sight, I had to go back to work. I figured that it was highly likely no one would turn up, but I felt I needed to go there regardless, just in case the power did come back on. I took the horribly overcrowded bus along the usual route, surveying some signs of the chaos that had ensued. At a couple of intersections, now without traffic lights of course, there had been collisions and the police were now at work stopping and directing traffic through them. I got to work safely enough, but aside from one guy who showed up for a level test (kudos to him for his commitment) no students appeared, so with no sign of the power coming back, I got to go home early.
To give credit to the majority of people I saw, they took this all in their stride. Many people went to terraces and spent the afternoon socialising with friends, the park near our flat was busy with people sitting out in the sun, I even saw people on the bus with physical, paper books. Sure, there were examples of people going to the supermarket and buying a month’s worth of tinned food and toilet roll, but they seemed to be the exception rather than the norm. Just before 10pm, as we were considering a very early night, one of our lights flickered back into action and we heard a great cheer go up from the surrounding flats.
A day unlike any other I’ve experienced - and hopefully one that won’t be repeated!