To this day, injury time remains one of futbol's greatest mysteries. How does the referee actually calculate how much injury time should be added at the end of the 90 minutes? If you watch enough futbol, the majority of the time a first half will see one minute added before halftime and then the second half will see three extra minutes added, even though you hardly noticed a difference in those two minutes of stoppage between the two halves.
There have been legendary injury times such as Manchester United's two injury time goals to beat Bayern Munich in the 1999 UEFA Champions League final. There was also the classic case of a corrupt referee adding 12 (12!) minutes of injury time to a match in South America until the home side finally scored the game-winner. Those aside, any European league will feature several matches every weekend where the balance of the match is tipped either for or against a team either right before or during injury time. This happened over the weekend with Rayo Vallecano and Zaragoza.
Zaragoza traveled down to the Comunidad de Valencia to play Castellon and amid a downpour, maintained a slim 0-1 advantage after a goal in the 45th minute. With a whopping 5,000 people in attendance, time ticked down as Zaragoza was ready to claim the three precious points and situate themselves in the promotion zone. The referee ordered another three minutes be played at the Estadio Municipal de Castalia as part of injury time and that's when disaster struck for Zara. Defender Pulido foollishly brough down Nsue in the area and Ulloa gladly converted the PK for Castellon to equalise the match. Just like that, Zaragoza lost two points and fell back to one point behind in the promotion zone.
On the flip side, Rayo Vallecano and Huesca were dealing with freezing winds in the Aragon city on top of a sopping wet field after recent rains. Hardly any offense was generated at all and a 0-0 result was all but a sure thing. Then lo and behold in the 89th minute (right as injury time was about to start!) Rayo forward Piti was the recipient of a counterattack and plucked the ball from outside the area into the Huesca net to give Rayo the three points. Rayo now sits third and in the promotion zone.
Remember these two matches should Rayo finish ahead of Zaragoza in the race for promotion.
Other news and notes out of El Infierno:
Xerez coach Esteban Vigo finally gave the nod to Jozy Altidore to suit up against Hercules. That was the good news. The bad news is that Jozy didn't play even though Xerez was up 3-0 in the second half. The resouding win for Xerez over 2nd place Hercules gives Xerez 60 points a bit of breathing room.
Tenerife keeps rolling. After that 0-0 tie against Rayo, the islanders went back home and thumped Levante.
Enhorabuena to Girona and Celta for getting their first wins in El Infierno in over two months!
Resultados - Jornada 32
Albacete - Elche 2-1
Celta - Cordoba 1-0
Tenerife - Levante 5-1
Eibar - Real Sociedad 1-1
Huesca - Rayo Vallecano 0-1
Castellón - Zaragoza 1-1
Gimnástic - Las Palmas 0-0
Xerez - Hercules 3-0
Girona - Murcia 1-0
Alicante - Salamanca 0-0
Sevilla At - Alaves 1-1
Clasificacion:
1. Xerez - 60
2. Tenerife - 59
3. Rayo - 56
4. Hércules - 56
5. Zaragoza - 55
6. R. Sociedad - 50
7. Salamanca - 49
8. Levante - 46
9. Castellón - 45
10. Huesca - 44
11. Gimnástic - 43
12. Elche - 42
13. Girona - 42
14. Albacete - 40
15. Celta - 39
16. Murcia - 39
17. Las Palmas - 37
18. Córdoba - 36
19. Alavés - 32
20. Eibar - 29
21. Alicante - 28
22. Sevilla At - 13
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