January 12, 2025
These diaries had only once before dipped its toes into Spanish football, with a report on the 2022/23 La Liga match between Girona and Real Madrid, which was an emphatic 4-2 victory for Girona over the Galacticos.
https://fatbearssportingdiaries.blogspot.com/2023/04/girona-fc-4-2-real-madrid-cf-att-13306.html
Today, it was the turn of La Liga 2 to come under Fatbear’s spotlight, as 4th placed Elche entertained 11th placed Real Zaragoza in a match-up between two sides with proud histories of playing at the top level of Spanish football.
The 2024–25 La Liga 2, also known as La Liga Hypermotion for sponsorship reasons, is the 94th season of the Segunda Division since its establishment in Spain. The season commenced in August 2024 and is scheduled to end in June.
The league consists of 22 sides, with the top two being automatically promoted whilst the teams finishing in 3rd to 6th play-off for an additional promotion place. The bottom 4 are relegated to the Primera Federación, third level of Spanish football.
Elche
Elche is a city located just under 30 kilometres south-west of Alicante and has an estimated population of 235,000, making it the 20th largest municipality in Spain.
Founded in 1923, its football club have spent a total of 24 seasons in La Liga, the last of which was in 2022/23 when they finished rock bottom and were relegated to the Segunda Division to end a three-season spell in La Liga. Their average attendance that season in La Liga was 19,875.
Home is the Estadio Manuel Martínez Valero, which has 33,732 seats, and Elche are also known and the Green-Stripped Ones, in reference to their green and white kit.
Elche first played in La Liga after promotion in 1959 and spent much of the 1960s and 1970s in the top level, with a 5th place finish in 1963/64 and being runners-up in the Copa del Rey in 1969.
After relegation at the end of 1978/79, Elche spent only two seasons in La Liga in the 1980s, both of a duration of just one season. Promotion was secured again in 2012/13 after a 24 year wait, but in 2015 Elche became the first team ever in Spain to be relegated for unpaid taxes and excessive debt.
Elche This Season
In their first season back in La Liga 2, Elche finished 11th with an average attendance of 15,695 but are now making a strong bid to return to the top division.
At the start of this weekend’s round of fixtures Elche were in 4th place with a 10-6-5 record, and 7-2-2 at home, the second best in the league.
Elche started the season quite badly, with three losses in their opening four games. However, since a poor 0-1 loss at lowly Racing Club Ferrol in early November, Elche have been on a run of just one defeat in their last 13 league matches to sit three points behind leaders Almeria, with their average crowd now being 15,454.
Elche’s last outing was in the Copa del Rey, where they outclassed Las Palmas, 13th in La Liga, to win 4-0, and to set up a home tie next week against Atletico Madrid.
Elche Squad
The foreigners in the Elche squad included ex-Sturm Graz Austrian centre-back David Affengruber ( who sounds like a potential character in Allo Allo ! ), Moroccan striker Mourad El Ghezouani, ex-Brondby, Rosenberg, Odd & Clermont Swedish born Kosovan winger Elbasan Rashani ( 27 caps ), and Uruguay forward Augustin Alvarez ( 4 caps ), who is on loan from Italian side Sassuolo.
Argentinian midfielder Miguel Castro has played for Newell’s Old Boys and Genk, whilst countryman Nico Fernandez Mercau can play left-back, wing-back or as a winger. Full-back Bambo Diaby was born in Senegal but grew up in Spain so counts as a Spanish qualified player, and has previously played for Barnsley, Preston North End and Sheffield Wednesday.
Of the Spanish players in the Elche squad, right-back Mario Gaspar ( 3 caps ) played over 300 games for Villareal and played one season for Watford, defender Pedro Bigas could be a character from Monty Python’s Life Of Brian, midfielder Alvaro Nunez has played for Athletic Bilbao, winger Yago Santiago was in Tottenham’s youth teams but never made a first team appearance, and midfielder Aleix Febas previously played for Real Zaragoza.
El Ghezouani was the top scorer so far this season with 6 goals, followed by Alvarez on 5 and Mercau on 4.
Zaragoza
Zaragoza is the fifth most populous municipality Spain with a population of around 675,000. Its football team were formed in 1932 and have played 54 seasons in La Liga. They achieved success in Europe by winning the 1963/64 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, when they beat Valencia in the final, and the 1994/95 UEFA Cup Final, when they beat Arsenal 2-1 in extra-time, thanks to “Nayim from the halfway line !”
Real have never won La Liga, the best finish was 2nd in 1974/75, but they have won the Copa del Rey on 6 occasions, the most recent being in 2003/04.
Real were relegated from La Liga at the end of 2012/13 and have remained in La Liga 2 since then. Last season saw a 15th place finish.
Home is the 33,608 capacity La Romareda, which is due to shortly start renovation work to convert it into 43,000 capacity stadium by 2027. Real’s traditional colours are white shirts with royal blue shorts.
Real Zaragoza This Season
Following the resignation of coach Victor Fernandez just before Christmas, Real appointed much travelled ex-Sporting Gijon coach Miguel Angel Ramirez, and today was his first game in charge.
Ramirez inherited a side in 11th place with an 8-5-8 record but only 6 points from a play-off place and just 10 points behind league leaders Almeria. Interestingly, Real had the third best away record in the division at 4-4-3.
Real started the season well, winning four and drawing one of their opening six games. However, their form fell off, and they were on a run of seven matches without a win by the time Fernandez decided to leave. Real also exited the Copa Del Rey during this barren run, losing at home on penalties to Grenada. Real did win their one match under caretaker coach David Navarro, 1-0 at home to Racing Club Ferrol.
The average attendance this season was 18,397 this season, compared to 22,535 last year, which was the best in the division.
Real Zaragoza Squad
Mario Soberon and Ivan Azon were joint top scorers with 6 goals apiece, but Soberon had been out injured since early November, coinciding with Real’s poor run. Azon had appeared in all 21 league games to-date, including coming off the bench in 8 matches.
French keeper Gaetan Poussin was previously with Bordeaux, Portuguese defender Bernardo Vital joined from Estoril and midfielder Keidi Bare has 29 caps for Albania. Centre-back Enrique Clemente was on loan from Las Palmas and right-back Ivan Calero numbers Derby County, Burton Albion, Sparta Rotterdam and Elche amongst his former clubs.
Honduran midfielder Kervin Arriaga ( 29 caps ) joined this week on loan until the end of season from Partizan Belgrade but wasn’t selected in today’s squad.
Matchday Information
AA route planner showed the journey from Zaragoza to Elche to be 466 km with a journey time of 5 hours 20 minutes.
Ticket prices for the game ranged between €20 to €60. Fatbear’s inside informant advised that a half-litre of Mahou was €3.20, a large white wine was €3 and there was a roaring trade in sales of Baguettes !
The weather at the 16.15 local time kick-off ( 15.15 UK time ) was sunny and 17 degrees.
The match was streamed live on Bet365.com, who made Elche 3/4 favourites, with Zaragoza at 4/1 and the draw at 23/10.
Highlights of Division 2 matches can be found on the LaLiga Hypermotion YouTube Channel.
Elche made four changes from the side that started their Copa del Rey match against Las Palmas, with 37-year-old Argentinian Matias Dituro replacing San Moran in goal, Bigas replaced Diaby in defence, veteran winger Josan replaced Rodrigo Mendoza in midfield, whilst El Ghezouani returned in place of Alvarez.
Zaragoza made two changes to the side that started against Racing Club Ferrol before Christmas with Calero and Clemente coming in for Marcos Luna and Francho Serrano
Elche were playing in their usual all white kits with a single green band across the front of their shirt. Zaragoza wore a change kit of all red.
Match Report
Zaragoza kicked off and were content to keep the early possession, but keeper Poussin soon had to leave his area to clear a long ball from the Elche defence.
The first yellow card of the game took only 4 minutes to arrive as Zaragoza’s Marc Aguado pulled back Febas as the Elche midfielder ran from halfway, and a minute later Santiago made a tricky run into the Zaragoza but was crowded out by three defenders.
The first effort on goal came in the 7th minute as Jose Salinas shot left footed from just outside area the Zaragoza penalty area, which produced a diving save from Poussin at his near post and held at second attempt.
Elche nearly took the lead two minutes later. A dangerous ball into the area was put out for a corner, which was taken by Mercau. Affengruber rose the highest on the 6-yard line, but his header was pushed away by Poussin and Zaragoza were able to clear.
The visitors’ response was for Ager Aketxe to shoot left footed from long distance, but keeper Dituro made an easy save
Elche were enjoying some success down their left with Salinas and Santiago to the fore, but Calero was on hand to block one cross after a flowing move.
Elche continued to press and Mercau shot narrowly wide left-footed from 25 yards, but when Elche centre-back Bigas brought down Lluis Lopez the home crowd whistled at the decision. Aketxe sent the resulting free-kick a couple of feet over the bar.
Zaragoza’s Dani Tasende became the second Zaragoza player to see yellow after chopping down Josan as he attempted to run from his area.
A minute later Lopez pushed over El Ghezouani but the referee allowed play to continue and as Zaragoza attacked, Affengruber made a super tackle on Azon which left the Zaragoza forward rolling on the ground as the referee waved play on.
The third yellow card to Real was shown in the 25th minute. Azon cut in from the left, but his shot was deflected high into air. Febas cleared for Elche, but Adrian Liso was late and clattered into Febas with a nasty foul to be shown the card.
A long range shot from Vital deflected off Elche’s Castro and Dituro did well to prevent a corner and set-up an immediate counter-attack. Santiago ran into a static Zaragoza defender but won a freekick just outside area. Salinas swung the ball into the 6-yard box but Real were able to clear.
Mercau then broke up a Zaragoza move and spread the ball to the left where Santiago skipped past Vital, but his low cut back went behind the onrushing Elche forwards and a shot from out wide on the right went harmlessly off for a goal kick.
Elche continued to be on top and five minutes before the break a ball from Castro on the left bounced across goal mouth and off for a goal kick. Mercau then sent a ball down the left-hand touchline for Santiago to chase but Clemente was covering and put the ball out for a throw.
Josan became the first Elche player to be shown a yellow card when, in his efforts to reach a cross from the left, he collided into Tasende.
The last action of the half saw Affengruber and Azon chase a long ball out of the Zaragoza defence. Both players were pushing each other and Azon went to the floor. The referee was unimpressed and allowed the game to carry on, but the Zaragoza coach was booked for his protests against the non-award of a free-kick to his side.
It remained goalless at the interval, but Elche had looked the more dangerous side but had created only one good chance.
Zaragoza nearly took an unexpected lead within a minute of the restart when Liso put the ball over the bar from the centre of the goal 8 yards out after receiving a return pass from the left from Tasende.
A comedy moment nearly occurred in the 49th minute when Poussin’s attempted clearance hit El Ghezouani but the ball bounced kindly for the keeper to gratefully jump and catch the ball.
Josan then received a pass with his back to Tasende and a stray elbow went into the Real player’s facing, leading to Tasende to collapse to the ground, but although a free-kick was awarded, no second card was shown to Josan, who stayed on the pitch.
Salinas and Santiago again combined down Elche’s left wing, but the cross went straight to Poussin who made the catch.
The game became scrappy, with neither side making much of an impression. For Zaragoza, a cross from Azon looked inviting but no-one was in support to take advantages, then the same player sent a first-time effort well wide. At the other end, Poussin comfortably gathered a couple of Elche crosses.
Elche gradually raised their game but Josan’s volley from a cross-field ball went high and wide from the angle of 6 yard box, then after Mercau showed some skill, El Ghezouani chested the chip into area back to Rashani, whose first time drive was fist-blocked by the keeper.
More skillful play from Mercau led to a scramble inside the Real area, but the visitors were able to clear the danger. Mercau then twisted around Clemente who, kept hold of his shirt, resulting in another yellow card.
Mercau was now at the heart of all of Elche’s moves and after getting past his marker on the right, he won a corner for his side, which was taken short, but Mercau’s ball towards the back post was well claimed by keeper Poussin under pressure from Affengruber.
Elche substitute Mendoza was brought down by Vital to give the home side a free-kick 30 yards out but the header from Bigas from 14 yards saw Poussin make a regulation diving save. The game was getting fractious as the yellow cards piled up, and Vital again brought down Mendoza.
There was very little action in the closing stages as Zaragoza seemed content to wind down the clock, either going to ground to hold up play with lengthy treatment for “injuries”, or giving away fouls leading to treatment to Elche players. An optimistic 30-yard effort from Tasende went 30 yards over the bar, his side were probably not too bothered as more time was taken out for the goal-kick.
When Elche created a half chance with 5 minutes remaining, substitutes John Donald and Rafael Nunez got in each other’s way at the far post, and the ball rolled off for a goal kick.
Four added minutes were to be played but with the game fizzling out towards a goalless draw, out of the blue a goal was scored ! Elche keeper Dituro’s long ball to the left was laid back by Kaba to Mendoza, who produced a delightful chip over and across the Zaragoza back line for Rashani to run onto and head over Poussin. Rashani received a yellow card for his excessive celebrations and taking his shirt off, but he probably didn’t care as the score was 1-0 to Elche after 93 minutes.
There was still time for Zaragoza to win a free kick near the halfway line, but when it was launched into the mixer, Dituro came and made an important catch, whereupon the referee promptly blew his whistle to end the match.
Although it was a late winner, Elche deserved to take the three points. They had enjoyed 62% possession and had created most of the few chances in the games, and had the man of the match in Mercau. Both sides were shown 5 cards each plus the one to the Zaragoza coach, to make it 11 in total in the game.
With this victory, Elche moved up to second in the table to confirm their status as live promotion contenders. Zaragoza remained in 11th place, and on this evidence, mid-table is where they are likely to end up.
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNPVTYVGmsc
Elche CF : Dituro – A Nunez, Affengruber, Bigas, Salinas ( Donald ) – Josan ( R Nunez ), Febas, Castro ( Mendoza ), Santiago ( Rashani ) – Mercau, El Ghezouani
Real Zaragoza : Poussin – Vital, Lopez, Clemente, Tasende – Calero, Bare ( Jair ), Aguado ( Moya ) – Aketxe ( Sans ), Liso ( Ares ), Azon ( Mari )
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