Tomorrow just may be the day where all positions in El Infierno are decided. Then again, it may not. After this weekend, this is still one last week to play, yet the teams at the top who are so close to promotion still have some work to be done. More on that later.
Meanwhile, at the bottom, Celta took a huge step towards avoiding relegation to Segunda B by beating Alaves 2-1 thanks to two goals from iago Aspas, a player who will now go down in Celta lore. Only Las Palmas can be caught by the Basque side and the gap is a fairly wide five points. This all but closes a sad state of affairs for Alaves who, as mentioned numewrous times before in this blog, rose to European glory by coming oh-so-very close to winning the 2001 UEFA Cup. The only holdover from that team is Astudillo who promised to walk back to Vitoria completely naked should Alaves survive. Thankfully for the majority of the northern Spanish countryside, it looks like that won't happen so cows in Asturias will be spared the site of a naked poney-tailed futbolista doing a reverse of the Camino de Santiago.
Back to the top, Xerez lost at Tenerife to drop to 2nd place but it doesn't really matter as they are still just a single point away from earning promotion to the Primera Division for the first time in club history. Part of me hopes they drop the home encounter against Huesca and then lose the season finale in Balaidos mainly because I'm still smarting from the fact that Jozy Altidore never played a single minute for Esteban Vigo. I can only imagine what kind of hand-writing might be happening should Huesca pull off the stunner and Hercules creep to within three points heading into the final weekend of the season. But let's be honest, it won't happen and Xerez and the islanders out in the Canaries look safe for promotion. Tenerife travels to Catalonia to play Girona who should be applauded for a stellar performance their first season in El Infierno. Playing in the smallest stadium with one of the smallest budgets, the club still finished with 49 points in 15th place. Not bad.
As for the other team destined to drink cava on Saturday, Primera Disvision stalwart Zaragoza looks safe to secure their pass back to glory as they are at home against Cordoba who are just glad to not be relegated. The 1995 Recopa winners belong back in the elite of Spanish futbol and it will be good to have them there.
Resultados - Jornada 40
Albacete - Murcia 0-0
Celta - Alaves 2-1
Rayo - Real Sociedad 4-1
Salamanca - Zaragoza 1-3
Tenerife - Xerez 2-0
Eibar - Girona 2-2
Levante - Elche 2-0
Huesca - Sevilla Atletico 3-0
Gimnástic - Castellon 0-1
Córdoba - Las Palmas 4-1
Alicante - Hercules 1-2
Clasificacion
1. Tenerife - 78
2. Xerez - 78
3. Zaragoza - 77
4. Hércules - 72
5. Rayo - 68
6. R. Sociedad - 63
7. Levante - 62
8. Salamanca - 60
9. Castellón - 59
10. Gimnástic - 54
11. Elche - 53
12. Huesca - 50
13. Córdoba - 50
14. Murcia - 49
15. Girona - 49
16. Albacete - 48
17. Celta - 46
18. Las Palmas - 45
19. Alavés - 40
20. Alicante - 34
21. Eibar - 32
22. Sevilla At. - 17
2 comments:
mate you are ridiculously committed to reporting about Spanish second division football. I read your blog for the first time today not knowing anything about the second division of the Spanish game. It's well written (with enthusiasm), easy to follow, plus you've made me interested too. Nice one.
Hey cool! I appreciate the comment and hope you have a chance to read this week's entry.
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