ANDthe hallway. Not the element of the house for which if you were ‘clever’ your mother would yell at you. The gesture (of honor, applause or humiliation, depends on the optics) that each ‘x‘ time comes to the fore of football Spanish. With a similar story, a dominating team, a rival party and a refusal (or just the opposite) to do it. This is the case of what happened between Real Madrid and Atltico de Madrid, with ‘los Blancos’ champions of the League and that visit to the coliseum in the Rosas neighborhood on the occasion of matchday 35 of the domestic championship.
It is an element that has been present in our football for half a century, making it a full-fledged tradition. This ‘honor to the champion’ was born with a gesture from Athletic Club de Bilbao to… Atltico de Madrid! Things of football, the first corridor that is known is in a clash between the Basque team and the colchonero played at the Manzanare Stadiumyes -what later was the Vicente Caldern-.
It was on May 17, 1970 and ‘Atleti’ had just been proclaimed league champions. Athletic was the runner-up. They measured each other in a clash of the Generalsimo Cup and the ‘lions’ led by the British Ronnie Allen honored the mattresses. Forming names like Iribar or Clemente applauding Luis Aragons or Grate. A constellation of stars that has nothing to envy to any other. “The most beautiful and sporting act of the season”, defined the chronicles of the time.
the first hallway
“It seemed right and proper to us. It is a gesture that honors them and us. Our coach was a very polite person and he came from a very good school”, confessed Iribar about the first corridor to ‘La Vanguardia’ in 2018.
Half a century later history has changed ‘on the banks of the Manzanares’. And from the Atlético de Madrid they have refused to make a corridor considering that “we are not going to collaborate in this attempt to mock. They want to turn what was born as a tribute to the champion into a public toll with the aroma of humiliation in which the values of sport are forgotten.
corridors with history
From that origin in the Paseo de la Virgen del Puerto to Real Madrid’s refusal to carry it out, the corridors have been protagonists in innumerable seasons. the last, from Getafe to Real Betis Balompi due to the achievement of the Verdiblanco team of the King’s Cup. But, obviously, the most controversial and well-known are those that occur between rivals.
Probably, on iconic terrain, those that occurred between Real Madrid and Barcelona have a memory more powerful for being the eternal rivalry of Spanish football. The last chapter was Real Madrid’s refusal in 2018… Which was justified, in turn, by another rejection from Bara. Real Madrid won the Club World Cup at the beginning of the course and the culs denied the tribute by “not playing for the trophy”. While when Bara won LaLiga in Riazor, the following week Madrid stated that as compensation for what happened months ago It wasn’t going to happen either. Thus, another discussion also opens about which competitions deserve a corridor and which ones do not. Although the newspaper library is treacherous, because in January 2010 Villarreal de Valverde did it to Bara de Guardiola who signed the sextet by beating Estudiantes de La Plata.
Beyond these ‘comings and goings’, Madrid and Bara have large iconic corridors. The last of the 2007-08 academic year (with 4-1) and that ‘dodge’ by Eto’o and Deco for not doing it. Or the first, in 1988 with the tribute of the Ciudad Condal to a Madrid of the ‘Fifth‘ who dominated the competition. Three years later it was the Bernabu that applauded Johan Cruyff’s ‘Dream Team’.
There is also a tradition abroad
The corridors are not only the exclusive heritage of Spanish football. In England there are well-known cases, in addition to the fact that his first ideologue in Spain was Ronnie Allen, a British coach for Athletic. For example, nobody will forget the one that Chelsea did against Leicester after their league title. It so happened that it was the old champion to the new champion of the Premier League.
In relation to the Atlético de Madrid, there are also iconic corridors. Both made to rivals, and in the Caldern against Bara in the 2012-13 academic year. Or the one from Valencia in Mestalla to Atlético after winning the European Super Cup in 2018 (against Real Madrid, precisely). Or after the Copa del Rey at the Bernabu, at the Mallorca el Atltico de Madrid in the old mattress fiefdom. Nor has Real Madrid avoided known corridors, one of its most relevant in recent times It was the one made to the UEFA champion Sevilla in 2006 at the Pizjun.
And if it is in the case of a title that takes an ‘eternal rival’, there are also very recent precedents. Like that of Athletic Club de Bilbao against Real Sociedad after the La Cartuja Cup, which Imanol’s men defeated their staunch rival. Well, weeks after the Marcelino performed it for the people of San Sebastian. “We will do it, as it corresponds”, Marcelino explained on that occasion.
Looking ahead, the Wanda Metropolitano match is absolutely ruled out, according to comments from the Atltico. And it is something that can make the champion morbid. According to history, there are ‘revenge’ for that reason. Like the one from Bara de Cruyff to Espanyol de Clemente by not doing it and sweeping 0-4.
Be that as it may, the already known as ‘Corridor Derby’ will not have it. After a lot of ink, discussions and explanation of values that only seem to exist on certain occasions. Next year there will be more chapters in a never-ending story that is so linked to their own rivalries, likes and dislikes, and football passions.
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