At the end of the final training session before the Seville derby, coach and captain sat on the bench together at the Benito Villamarín, surrounded by empty green seats. The following night 53,451 people would fill Real Betis’s stadium with noise but for now it was quiet. “So,” Quique Setién asked, “what do you think? How do you feel?” Joaquín Sánchez looked at him and said he didn’t know; still not quite right. He knew better than anyone that this was the game – nobody’s played more of them – but a calf injury meant he was yet to appear this season and he wasn’t convinced. Setién was. What about 15, 20 minutes towards the end, he asked. No need to run back, just find a way through. Ok, Joaquín said. And so it was done.

It was still 0-0, Sevilla had just gone down to 10 men, Roque Mesa sent off with a second yellow card for the terrible crime of being attacked by Pau López, and the clock showed 69.49 when Joaquín set off up the touchline to warm up; 73.56 when he came on to replace William Carvalho; and 79.18 when he got his first touch. Dashing into the area, he headed in Aïssa Mandi’s superb cross from a couple of yards. “Bish, bosh, in,” he grinned: five minutes, one touch, and all lunacy was let loose, the derby won. Racing to the corner, Joaquín tore off his shirt, team-mates piling on. At full-time, victory secured, he leapt into the arms of Setién. “It was a miracle we didn’t kiss,” he said. “We were emotional,” Setién said. “Levitating,” declared Diario de Sevilla.

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This was huge. The Seville derby always is – “Much more than football,” AS’s headline called it – but for Betis the optimism, euphoria even, of the summer in which they seemed to have signed well, was slipping a little. It was only two games and Joaquín rightly insisted “you lot set the alarm bells ringing so quick,” but they were under pressure. “We needed this like a man needs to eat,” the president Angel Haro said. “We needed the points to trust in Setién and his system.” Which is a bit daft – committed to a footballing cause, his system took Betis to Europe and made them a team that players like Giovani Lo Celso, William Carvalho, Takashi Inui and Sergio Canales want to play for – but there was something in it. “The immense majority of our fans, 90%, are happy,” Setién said. “To the other 10%, I’d say don’t worry: we’ll win enough games to change their minds.”

None better than Sevilla. “Win the derby and everything will change,” Inui said, and Betis flew at their opponents. Canales sent one in towards Loren at the near post; Inui produced a lovely nutmeg and a less lovely shot; Andrés Guardado slipped in and drew a save; Carvalho put Loren through. All inside 13 minutes. Betis, though, hadn’t scored, and familiar fears resurfaced. When Canales did, it was ruled out for offside, and by the time Joaquín was sent on, they still hadn’t got the goal: for all their play, for all the possession, they were approaching 260 minutes without scoring. Sevilla, meanwhile, had made chances of their own – Pablo Sarabia and André Silva drew saves in the first half – and the supply of opportunities had slowed. So, in the heat, had the game.

Then Mesa was sent off for a second yellow. As he walked, Betis’s fans chanted “Stupid! Stupid!” at him and maybe it wasn’t that wise, but the decision was still baffling. He had drifted towards but not directly into the path of Pau as the Betis goalkeeper looked to throw the ball out quickly. Seeing him, Pau leapt sideways, crashing into the back of him, forearm first. “A picture is worth a thousand words,” said Pablo Machín. “It was an agresión, a red card, a penalty. Instead, Roque got a second yellow. He’s indignant. It wouldn’t be the first time a player said something that wasn’t entirely true but I’ve seen the footage now and it happened exactly as he said. The VAR’s supposed to be there to impart justice. I’ll have to go back to school so they can explain it to me. They denied us the chance to win. If that’s what the VAR is for, they might as well do if from the bar, drinking a few beers.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Roque Mesa reacts after being sent off. Photograph: Jose Manuel Vidal/EPA

At the end of the press conference, Machín apologised: “I didn’t want to come here and talk about this, but it conditioned the game so much,” he said. “We had reached that point in the game, were in our best moment, still in it, and we were preparing fresh players – that was our plan but we couldn’t apply it.”

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Instead, it was Betis who did. “It had to be him,” AS said: everyone’s favourite cheeky scamp, Betis fan, youth teamer, captain, shareholder, and match-winner. “Joaquín is eternal,” AS insisted, calling this “Joaquín’s derby.” “Joaquín smiles, Betis smile,” El Mundo said. And it’s not just that: for all the one-liners, the giggles, the silliness, and the chicken hypnosis, with Joaquín it’s not all jokes. It’s not being funny that keeps him in football; it’s not even the symbolism: “He’s a genius, a grande,” one member of the coaching staff says, and far cleverer, more responsible and serious than people realise.

“[This derby is] no joke,” the cover of Estadio Deportivo said on the morning of the derby; the following morning, the headline ran: “It had to be Joaquín.” Setién said: “He’s a funny guy but he knows when it’s time to have a laugh and time to work. And he can still win us games, like tonight. I’m very pleased for him. He’s 37 now and this will stay in the memory; I don’t know, sadly, if he’ll get many more chances. I hope so.”

Not so long ago, few would have expected him to get this. At 37 years and 43 days, Joaquín is the oldest player to score in the Seville derby this century and the oldest and the oldest to have scored in any Andalucían derby in the first division. No one has scored in more Spanish seasons but the last time he got a goal in the derby was 16 years ago. It is 18 years now since he made his debut, against Compostela in the second division. He was away for nine years but this was his 20th derby, equalling the record. And when he tore off his shirt and pouted, his tongue was wedged in his cheek, but the physique was striking: he is leaner, more muscular now than he was then.

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He is enjoying it more than ever too, embracing every moment, clinging to it. At one end, a banner declared, “whenever you feel weak, look at our badge: the most beautiful thing in the world”; high at the other, Sevilla’s fans replied: “Look at ours and tremble.” For a decade of so, they might have done, but no more. Betis won 5-3 at Sevilla last season, and drew at home, and now this: three without defeat, a first home win since 2006. “All those years; we’ve waited a long time. We face them as equals now, and that feels different,” Joaquín said afterwards.

Standing there after the game, still in his kit and Betis flip flops, a No 17 drawn on the front, he grinned. “I dreamed of this lots of times. No lie: me scoring the winning goal against the eternal rival, at home. I have no words to express the happiness I feel. When I see them singing my name, the affection they give me, I know I can leave football a happy man.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Joy for Joaquín and Betis. Photograph: Jose Manuel Vidal/EPA

Talking points

• Twenty-thousand hats, 50,000 bottles of water, and four goals. Played at midday, despite local health authorities requesting that it be moved, the league saying that there was no risk – which’ll be why they took the exceptional decision to hand out the hats and the water – it was “unbearable” at times, they said, but the Valencia derby was certainly a good game.

• And Huesca lead! One up inside three minutes, Huesca had scored twice by half time in their first ever visit to the Camp Nou. By the end, though, they had conceded eight.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Barcelona on their way to routing Huesca. Photograph: Lluis Gene/AFP/Getty Images

• There’s something darkly revealing and pretty unpleasant about the rush to bury Ronaldo – and from those people. But it is true that, so far, Madrid look very good, even in his absence. Karim Benzema, especially.

• There were Rayo fans by the ground on Saturday afternoon and Athletic fans too, but no game. It was cancelled on Monday after the Madrid city council closed the ground because it was declared unsafe.

• “This is a warning,” Diego Simeone said. “Especially for me.” Defeated 2-0 at Celta, Atlético are already five points behind Madrid and Barcelona. Celta are third. “They can end it now,” Mohamed said. The Valencia derby wasn’t moved, by the way but this was, four days before. Nothing to do with the heat, they just fancied the 6.30pm slot, made available after the Rayo-Athletic game was cancelled.