tomorrow is our permanent address

The Italian federation's president, Giancarlo Abete, said he believes Balotelli will recover from his disappointing display against Spain. "Balotelli made his contribution but he must try to understand the reality of playing in a major international competition in which there is no forgiveness," Abete told Italy's Radio Anch'io Sport. "He nevertheless put the Spanish defence under pressure. Balotelli will not allow himself to be disheartened."

Best team

First, an honorary mention for Mirandés, the Second Division B side who reached the Copa del Rey semi-final and won promotion. But this season's best team, and the best story for years, were Levante. Every Monday, the club's groundsman Raimón climbs the stands and, in order of the league table, raises the flags up the poles that run along the back of the stands. For the first time ever, this season he hoisted Levante's into first place. They held on there until week nine, when they were knocked off and written off. But Levante resisted their inevitable slide down the table and kept on competing, right to the end. So what? Well, this is the club that has spent a total of less than €500,000 on players in the last four years combined, whose sporting director says "players run away when they hear what we have to offer", who have the oldest defence in the history of the league and a team packed with cast-offs, has-beens and never-really-weres, Spanish football's Expendables. As if that was not enough, their main striker had joined on loan from Sevilla – where he had scored one goal in five years – and had a clause in his contract saying that he automatically had to return if he scored 18 goals this season, which he was never going to do. So when he got to 17 he suddenly picked up a mysterious "injury" that meant he missed the final, decisive games of the season. And still they made it into Europe for the first time ever. So what's the secret? The secret, says the club's doctor, is simple: "Beer and pizza."

In a season of superlatives and insanity, Levante are kindasorta the story of the season. (This is not just because I am a culé.) When he was asked why fans gave him such a horrible reception at Dinamo Zagreb, Cristiano Ronaldo quipped that perhaps they were jealous of him because he was rich, handsome, and a great player. That weekend Levante put up banners admitting they were "poor, ugly, and bad at football". They beat Real Madrid 1-0. That's the kind of story they were.