882 minutes. Or nine and a half consecutive home games. That’s how long Villarreal and Diego López, particular, have kept a clean sheet at El Madrigal in La Liga.
The Yellow Submarine have not leaked a goal at home since February 3rd 2008 when Mallorca’s Angelos Basinas scored from the spot in the 39th minute.
The 26 year old ‘keeper entered Saturday’s game against Real Betis with 862 minutes worth of clean sheets at home but Damía put an end to that streak 20 minutes into the contest. Had the former Real Madrid custodian maintained that run for the full 90 minutes, he would only have been 67 minutes away from setting a new record.
As such the current record still stands at ten successive home games, or 1,018 minutes, held by Athletic Bilbao’s José Ángel Iríbar during the 1970-71 season.
One of the key defenders to have helped Diego López achieve this remarkable sequence is Argentine centreback, Gonzalo but he wasn’t too concerned with the missed history-making opportunity.
“It is true that we have not managed to break the record, but the most important thing was that we managed to win,” he was quoted by Marca.
“In order to keep clean sheets, it is necessary to play well and to have luck all the time,” he added.
Diego López joined El Submarino in 2007 following a €6 million move from Real Madrid and despite his constant heroics last season and in this term so far, he has still been unable to break into the Spanish national squad even as one of the two back-ups.
KS Leong