Super Eagles’ returnee, Ramon Azeez’s club, Granada of Spain have pulled off another fairytale in La Liga, as the unfancied side have shot top of the table for the second time this season, after a 1-0 win over Real Betis on Sunday, megasportsarena.com reports.
Azeez played all 90 minutes of the game at his coub’s home ground, Los Carmenes, with Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz as centre referee of the encounter that drew a crowd of 18,985 in the stands, and the former Golden Eaglets captain came out without any card to his name.
Just as Azeez is on a romp back to the spotlight, with a recall to the Eagles to show, after five years’ absence, his club are also rolling out massive talking points for history and the record books, less than five months after they gained promotion back to the Spanish top flight.
For a second time this season, the Andalusian side reached La Liga’s summit, at a point when El Clasico was postponed due to Catalonia’s political crisis, and Diego Martinez’s side took pivotal advantage of the shifted fixture between Barcelona and Real Madrid.
The Andalusian side have enjoyed a remarkable return to La Liga, after two seasons in the second tier, winning six of their opening 10 games this season, including a memorable 2-0 victory over Barca on September 21, in which Azeez scored one of the goals, and Sunday saw Alvaro Vadillo’s second-half goal seal all three points at Estadio Nuevo Los Carmenes
With Barca not playing this weekend after their clash with Madrid was postponed, Granada were able to move a point clear at the top of the table. Civil unrest in Catalonia forced the first Clasico of the 2019-20 season to be rearranged for December 18, giving rise to an attendant tale of the recently-promoted side Granda’s impressive season.
With only two losses and a historic 2-0 win over Barcelona this season, Diego Martínez’s side are separating themselves from the notion that they’re running on luck, and instead are gravitating towards becoming a legitimate force within the league.
Attention now shifts to tonight and tomorrow, with daunting odds out again, as a lot will be on the line when Betis receive Celta Vigo in midweek, while Granada, who are on the other side of the spectrum, look to keep defying bookmakers when they visit Getafe.
Azeez’s team’s haul of 20 points from 10 games this season is as many as they managed from all 38 league matches when they were relegated in 2016-17, but they could be dethroned when Ernesto Valverde’s Barca take on Real Valladolid for their game in hand tonight at Camp Nou.
