By Manolo Rodríguez

On the 22 of December 1982, Real Betis played at Heliópolis a Copa del Rey game against Malaga. That's Christmas lottery day in Spain. A national event that is the main conversational topic in the country during that day.

Everybody in Seville was talking about that when the fans started to go to the stadium to attend to a Copa del Rey game. The other topic was the cold wave, which made the attendance at Villamarin quite por. Barely nine thousand, the papers said.

Unfortunately, the brave béticos who defied the low temperatures did not get many reasons to be entertained. They witnessed a bad game. In spite of the many goals scored, football was already on holidays. 2-2 was the final score and, in many moments, the fans expressed their distaste. A symptom of what was happening.

And what was happening was that Real Betis were not doing well. Benfica had eliminated them in the first round of the UEFA Cup, and they were place in 12 position in the league table with just 13 points in 16 games.

However, the worst part had happened in Copa del Rey. Not just because of the draw against Malaga but the (almost) embarrassment of the previous round against the modest Alcalá de Henares that played in the Third Division. In the first leg, the team from Madrid had won 1-0 and in the second, the score was 2-2 with 20 minutes left to play. On the verge of the collapse. Luckily, Cardeñosa scored two goals when the match was about to finish.

The fans made the coach responsible and they yelled asking for his dismissal. That coach was the Hungarian Antal Dunai, a young man with little experience at the benches but with an important career as a player. Historic goal scorer at Ujpest Dosza, Olympic gold medallist in Mexico 68 and 31 caps won with his national team.

He was 39, had just retired and his first coaching experience had been at Xerez Deportivo where, after a brilliant season, he had achieved promotion to Second Division.

He was recommended by Ferenc Szusza, whose shadow still roamed around Betis, and the board directed by Juan Manduit signed him. He arrived with a one-year contract. Everyone said this was a gamble.

However, at this point in December, things were looked at in a different way. Influential journalist Manuel Ramírez Fernández de Córdoba wrote in in one of his articles the following: "It's not bad to think now about a change of manager; the bad was to sign him back in Summer; because Segunda B is not the same as UEFA and Betis is not Xerez."

This awkward environment grew like a snowball as matches were coming. There were few satisfactions, and many more bad moments. Until the Copa night against Malaga. The non-return point.

That night, already on the 23 of December, the administration board decided to sack Dunai. A harsh measure that was also accompanied with the cruelty of happening one day before Christmas Eve. A peaceful time that wasn't so at Villamarín. Something that had never happened before.

Dunai received the news when he arrived the following morning for the training. He couldn't believe it. He was told there and he later saw in the papers that the most commented news of the day was the signing of Marcel Domingo as his replacement. He just stated that he could not do more with the squad he had at his disposal.

He accepted it with deference and said that he had been labelled from the beginning as a "Segunda B coach" by Real Betis fans and part of the board. Some members of the board (the most influential ones) even suggested him some of the line-ups to use. On top of that, the fans were worried because there was a Real Betis vs Sevilla FC around the corner to be played at Heliópolis on the 2 of January of 1983.

Christmas Eve dinner at the Dunai's was a sad one. They never thought they would find themselves in that situation in such an important night. Betis had appeared as a great opportunity for him to become part of the list of coaches in Spanish football and the adventure did not last longer than six months.

They day after Christmas, he returned to Villamarín to sign the termination of his contract. He then had a meeting with Miguel Espina, the man in charge of the finances. They agreed quickly. Dunai felt he was fairly treated and the Club was generous with him. It was the fair thing to do.

Years later, the Hungarian came back to Spain to coach Murcia (and faced Real Betis several times) and Levante. In his country, he even became vice-chairman of the football federation. On Christmas 2016, he visited Benito Villamarín again, in an opportunity to see again that place where he worked in 1982. He happened to be on holidays in Marbella with his family and wanted to travel to Seville to remember those times when he defended the Green and White colours.

He confessed to have some special memories of some of the players he managed and was emotional remembering those moments. He walked through the whole venue and explained to his grandchildren how Betis fans used to cheer and was happy again walking on the lawn at Villamarín.

That pitch in which things didn't happen the way he would have liked and where he was bitterly dismissed in such an important date.