No goals, no glory

By Fergus O'Shea

Having qualified for the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League in each of the last five seasons, RC Deportivo La Coruña limped out of the competition this season with just two points from six games and without scoring a goal, finishing with a 5-0 humiliation at home against AS Monaco FC on 8 December.

Monaco mauling
Javier Irureta's side recovered from being on the receiving end of an 8-3 defeat by Didier Deschamps' men in the group stage last season to reach the semi-finals of the competition; by the time Monaco travelled to Galicia this term, the damage had already been done.

Disastrous campaign
"Things started wrong for us in the first game, we didn't score at home and then lost away to Monaco," Portuguese defender Jorge Andrade told uefa.com. "We got off to a very bad start in the Champions League and were under pressure to get points and score goals but we didn't manage to get either."

Unenviable record
Indeed, Deportivo set an unenviable record by being the first team ever to be knocked out of the group stage of the competition without scoring a goal. "We didn't play our game, whereas the other teams played comfortably, making it very difficult for us," explained Andrade.

Brutal blow
The final defeat against Monaco was a brutal blow for Deportivo. Playing for pride alone, they let their heads drop and were dealt another vicious blow by a side who are rapidly becoming their bogey team. "We always play badly against Monaco," said Jorge Andrade. "We have only beaten them once at the Riazor."

Sloppy defending
Deportivo had started the game looking the livelier of the two teams, but as defensive stumbles let Monaco seize the initiative, Irureta's men allowed Ernesto Chevanton, Gaël Givet, Javier Saviola, Douglas Maicon and Emmanuel Adebayor to score without reply.

Deschamps bewildered
Deschamps was at a loss as to what was wrong with his side's opponents. "They are practically the same team as last season," he said. "Very little has changed. Initially it was expected that Deportivo would qualify from the group but the competition is a very difficult one - it's at a very high level, especially this year. Last year there were quite a few surprises too."

Attacking edge
However, for many Riazor regulars, Deschamps hit the nail on the head when he said what he considered to be the main factor behind his side's success. "My team won because they were able to create danger and score goals," he said. That is something Deportivo struggled to do in Europe all season.

Leaky defence
Back in the Primera División, they have had a different problem. Deportivo have started the spring campaign stranded in mid-table, but while Alberto Luque is among the league's top scorers with eight goals, it has been a leaky defence that has seen Irureta's men drift away from the leading pack.

'Not my place'
Some supporters believe that the club needs a major shake-up in personnel in order to rediscover the form they showed in previous seasons, although Jorge Andrade is understandably coy about such suggestions. "It's not my place to say whether we need new faces," he said.

Makaay factor
For others, Deportivo are suffering a delayed reaction from the loss of Dutch striker Roy Makaay, who left the club for FC Bayern München two summers ago. Certainly his goals have been missed - a situation Irureta will hope to remedy as he strives to salvage something from a season that has thus far been memorable for all the wrong reasons.