Humiliation for Deportivo

“HUMILIATION”, “Pantomime” and “Disaster” were some of the headlines that greeted Deportivo Coruna as they staggered back to Spain yesterday following their record 8-3 defeat at the hands of Monaco in the Champions League.

"Deportivo were a caricature of their normal selves," said yesterday's edition of sports daily Marca. "The Galicians insisted on committing suicide time and time again as if they had been possessed by some evil spirit.

"It was a painful death, horrible to watch 90 agonising minutes that will be imprinted on the minds of Deportivo fans for a very long time to come."

Deportivo, who are normally noted for their consistency and disciplined play, made a string of schoolboy-style defensive errors that helped the French side storm to a 4-0 lead in the opening half hour.

"I'm lost for words," Deportivo's Scaloni said after the match. "It was like a bad dream. I'd be lying if I said there was an explanation for what happened it was just unbelievable."

"It was a terrible blow," admitted captain Mauro Silva. "Everything went wrong. We all have to face up to the responsibility for what happened and there is little more that can be said about it."

Club president Augusto Lendoiro, who broke his usual habit of refusing to travel to away matches by accepting an invitation to attend the game in Monaco, admitted that he, too, had been stunned by the result.

"Losing the game here might have been expected," he said. "But certainly not a result like this."

The last time Lendoiro joined his side on away trip four seasons ago they were beaten 5-1 by Arsenal in the UEFA Cup and it is likely to be a long time before he tempts fate by accepting another invitation to accompany his team.

The only positive note of the evening was sounded by coach Javier Irureta, who pointed out that, despite his side's historic defeat they still had a chance of making the last 16 of the competition.

"We are still in second place in the group," he said. "We have lost three points but you have to learn from your mistakes and bounce back."

France, on the other hand, was celebrating a night of football madness, with Olympique Lyon also claiming a huge scalp with their 2-1 away win at Bayern Munich.

Lyon striker Giovane Elber returned to his former hunting ground at the Olympic Stadium and scored the decisive goal against the 2001 champions.

French clubs often have an inferiority complex when playing big foreign clubs and these victories by the two best teams in the country were hailed as landmarks.

Le Parisien, a daily newspaper devoted to Paris-St Germain, was so moved that it led its front page with the story, under the headline "Two incredible achievements."

"An evening of madness" read the front page headline in L'Equipe.

Still dazed after scoring the four goals, Monaco's Prso says he is proud to be bracketed with his hero, Marco van Basten.

He celebrated his 29th birthday by becoming only the third player after Dutchman van Basten, for AC Milan in 1992, and Lazio's Simon Inzaghi in 2000 to score four goals in a Champions League match.

"He (van Basten) was a great player, he was my idol," Prso said. "To join him in the statistics gives me a huge amount of pleasure. What a beautiful birthday present."

He is now top of the Champions League scorers list with Olympique Marseille's Didier Drogba, with five goals.

Prso equalled the individual scoring record for one match, previously held jointly by van Basten and Simone Inzaghi. Monaco's win set new Champions League match records for the most goals scored by one side and the highest aggregate scoreline, surpassing Paris Saint-Germain FC's 7-2 victory against Rosenborg BK in October 2000.