Two Fridays ago, the squad signed a statement saying they couldn't carry on like this. And last Friday, the fans who've been through it all before decided they too would walk away. Yet 48 hours later, after another week that proved them right, resisting everything, there they were still, celebrating another implausible success, another day when they had stuck it to The Man.
"I'm ashamed of my reaction on the touchlines after the penalty was awarded," Pérez said after the game in an interview with broadcaster DAZN. "It was the result of frustration. Referees make mistakes and that's OK. What bothers me is that today the players had five minutes of VAR and five minutes without it and so on. Everyone that's played knows the influence it has on the players, referees and assistants now... It's a different game.
