From The Vault: Depor’s quick horizontal passing inspires their historical comeback

Deportivo La Coruna’s trophy cabinet has space for only 6 trophies. One man is responsible for 4 out of these 6. His name is Javi “Jabo” Irureta. Having taken Celta Vigo to a 6th place finish in 1997–98 and into the Uefa Cup, Jabo traveled across Galicia to their bitter rivals Deportivo La Coruna.

Clinching their first La Liga title, 2nd Copa del Rey title and two Supercopa de Espana trophies within the first three years with Irureta. Depor were the hottest topic at the beginning of the millennium, not only in Spain but in the whole of Europe.

In the 2003–04 Champions League Quarter-finals they were drawn against reigning champions, AC Milan. The 1st leg in Italy ended in a 4–1 thrashing. Milan were comfortably ahead in the tie and only a miracle would see SuperDepor through.

Milan’s lineup was filled with glamorous names; Kaka, Andrea Pirlo, Clarence Seedorf and many more. Carlo Ancelotti’s side played in a hybrid 4–3–1–2/4–2–2–2 shape with Gennaro Gattuso regularly dropping next to Pirlo. Depor meanwhile played in a 4–2–3–1 shape with Juan Carlos Valeron drifting into the left channel to combine with Enrique Romero and Albert Luque. Deportivo’s long direct balls into Walter Pandiani were to no avail as Alessandro Nesta and Paolo Maldini won most of the aerial duels. It was Deportivo’s 2nd approach that made the dream a reality.

Deportivo focused on progressing through the wings, moving Milan’s narrow midfield out of place then once Milan’s quartet was disorganized and out of position, Deportivo would play the ball horizontally across the field. Mainly attacking the space behind Pirlo, between Milan’s defence and midfield.

It was as early as the 5th minute. Moving the ball from right to left, Deportivo’s midfield rocked Milan’s diamond leaving Pirlo way out of position. As a result, Pandiani had plenty of space between the lines to drop into but Valeron couldn’t find him with a pass.

The Spanish midfielder opted to pass it out wide to his countryman Romero instead. The left-back saw the space and instead of playing the ball high, he slid it into the space behind Pirlo.

Pandiani dropped to that space, received the ball with his back to goal then adjusted his body with no pressure from midfield and struck the ball into the bottom left corner past Dida. It was 1–0 after 5 minutes and Depor only needed 2 goals now.

From the replay you can see the space between the midfield and the defence. Pandiani had enough time to collect, adjust his body and shoot.

Valeron’s movements to the left channel allowed him to play through-balls for Luque behind Cafu. Another thing is that Pirlo had to leave his space multiple times to track Valeron. This meant that there’s a gap in midfield. Depor were smart, they built up wide on the wings then quickly played the ball horizontally into these gaps.

In this example, Sergio attacked that space forcing Seedorf to move inside. The knock-on effect was that Victor Sanchez del Amo was completely free out wide. The right winger had time on the ball and his deflected shot hit the post.

The glamorous Milan midfield was all over the place. Seedorf’s narrowness here and his positioning high up the pitch left Manuel Pablo, Deportivo’s right back, completely free. Giuseppe Pancaro couldn’t go out and face him as Victor Sanchez pinned him. That leaves Pirlo moving to the left channel, again leaving the space in between the lines. Gattuso is trying to retreat, but he’s too late.

It wasn’t only Depor’s decision making of playing these horizontal balls into the space in between the lines. It was also the quickness of the passes and the decisions. As Manuel Pablo was crossing the ball towards Valeron, the midfielder spotted Victor Sanchez in a great position. He headed the ball into his path, presenting the right winger with an opportunity to score the second.

Victor Sanchez took more time than he should have, but eventually he chose the correct option by playing it back to Valeron.

Valeron should have probably scored from here. Unfortunately, his shot was saved excellently by Dida who was single-handedly keeping Milan in the tie.

Left side build up with Valeron over-loading and Pirlo trying to track back to minimize the space between defence and midfield. A reoccurring scene throughout the game. Before Pirlo returns here, Luque plays the ball horizontally across that space.

Victor Sanchez’s control takes him inside the field rather than outside which puts Seedorf into play. The thing here is, if Victor attacks the crossed ball earlier and plays it into Pandiani, the striker would be in an exact scenario similar to the one he scored the first goal from.

Deportivo keep the ball anyway and seconds after Pirlo is completely ignoring Victor’s run inside the box. Manuel Pablo finds the right midfielder and Victor’s shot is turned into a corner-kick by Dida. The resulting corner eventually produces Depor’s second, and the come-back is now definitely on.

Luque managed to make it 3–0 and at that moment Deportivo are through on away goals. Milan still had the same problems however. With Romero on the ball and Valeron drifting to the left wing, Pirlo is moving out of position to track Valeron. This leaves the same center space in the middle of the pitch in-front of Nesta and Maldini empty.

Pirlo is then attracted to the ball and is way out of position in the wing area. Seedorf spots Valeron and drops to keep tabs on him. The disorientation of Milan’s midfield was always the signal to Depor to quickly play the ball horizontally. Luque here pings it into the space outside the box just in-front of Pandiani. The striker should have probably fared better with the ball but Maldini’s pressure meant that Pandiani lost it.

In the build up to Depor’s 4th goal the previously mentioned space was still there and a quick horizontal pass from Victor to Valeron could have presented a good chance. It didn’t matter in the end as Fran’s shot was deflected into the net to make it 4–0.

“The game turned out exactly the way I dreamed. It was almost mission impossible but we gave a sensational first-half display to get the three goals we needed.” Irureta said after the game.

Deportivo’s approach of building up on the wings moving Milan’s narrow midfield out of position, then playing quick horizontal passes to exploit that proved its effectiveness in a game that will always be remembered in European football history.

Deportivo La Coruna’s slogan “Somos gente marinera” translates into “We are people from the sea. Their stadium, Riazor, looks like a big ship that is entering into the sea and it’s one of the closest stadiums to the sea in the world. On that night in April Ancelotti and Milan drowned as Jabo and his crew swam victorious.