As late goals go, they could be the most crucial of the season.
In a rare midweek programme of football games in La Liga, those scored in the 93rd and 94th minutes in the Benito Villamarin and the Levante UD Stadium may well prove the most decisive of all.
Indeed, sports betting fans may just have witnessed the final European and relegation positions all but confirmed.
Junior Firpo may have been shown a yellow card in the 95th minute for excessive celebrations but will he or Real Betis really care?
For his header moments earlier had sealed a sixth straight win and put them in the box seat for fifth spot and the Europa League – all this in a campaign in which they have been mainly off the pace to the likes of Villarreal and Sevilla.
It has almost certainly relegated Las Palmas too, the Canary Islanders finishing the contest with 10 men following the late dismissal of Michel Macedo who injured himself in the process of picking up a second yellow card.
And then there was Emmanuel Boateng whose left-footed shot from close range found the net with 93 minutes on the clock to give Levante a crucial win and confirmed the drop for basement battlers Malaga in the process too.
Again, there was collateral damage elsewhere too.
Boateng’s intervention has surely flattened Deportivo La Coruna’s survival hopes after Clarence Seedorf’s men had briefly threatened to turn their fortunes around.
The Galicians are now seven points from safety with five matches remaining and their four-year return to the top flight is all but over.
In any other week, Juanmi would normally have taken the headlines for a late double which sealed Real Sociedad a 3-0 victory over second-placed Atletico Madrid – a contest Atletico could afford to slip-up in given other slips by Real Madrid and Valencia 24 hours earlier.
What it all means is that should Barcelona win their next league match against Deportivo in 10 days time, they will be crowned 2018 champions.
If Atletico fail to see off Levante it will be even earlier.
That’s the top and seemingly the bottom all sorted.
Yet for now let’s park La Liga. Firpo and Boateng have made the seemingly telling contributions but now it’s time for the Copa del Rey Final!
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