With four days to go until the end of the championship, no one has any doubt that the match against SD Eibar, next Monday (8:00 p.m.) at Ipurua, is the last chance UD Las Palmas has to qualify for the direct ascent. Win or win, there is no other. Only through the sum of the three points, something that seems complicated in the field of the leader, the yellow box will be able to opt for one of the first two places in the three final dates. The calendar of the five candidates to go up to the First Division on the fast track establishes it.
At least on paper, although everyone has gotten used to failing in recent times. However, when there is so little left, it is to be expected that no one is going to concede. The final of the yellow box was last Sunday against Zaragoza, where if they had won they would have placed second with the visit to the leader a week later, but they failed (1-1), no matter how much their performance improved compared to the previous days.
Now, in Ipurua, it’s the final of the finals to keep alive the dream of direct promotion. A victory in Éibar would put UD above the current leader – they would have the same points, but with the goals scored – and even, depending on Alavés-Granada and Tenerife-Levante, it could lift them to first place. In any case, placing second would guarantee Las Palmas to depend on itself in the duels against Villarreal B, Cartagena and Alavés on the last day.
If the yellow box still has to be measured against two candidates, Alavés too, only that in their case they must also do so with Albacete, who is fighting with Cartagena for sixth place, the last one that gives access to the playoff. That is why the team from Vitoria is the one with the worst calendar; the best, Levante UD.
Because he is the only applicant who does not play against any of his direct rivals and, furthermore, he faces teams that do not play anything, such as Tenerife, Ibiza, Villarreal B and Oviedo. Only the subsidiary of the submarine could complicate life. They now have six points more than Málaga, which marks the relegation zone, but with a win in four games they would almost guarantee their permanence in the category.
The resistance of ‘Tete’
Eibar and Granada are in the same situation, those who currently command the table, only this day the first will have to receive UD and the second visit Alavés while the granota team goes to Heliodoro, where many are waiting that Tenerife does not put up much resistance to harm Las Palmas. In any case, the yellows lost their right to complain due to their own demerits.
For this reason, due to the calendar of one and the other and the little that remains, if the UD does not win on Monday in Ipurua, it will have said goodbye to its aspirations to go up the fast lane except for a miracle that almost nobody would expect no matter how long the competition has demonstrated in recent months that they are all wrong and can fail at any time. At least, there is some reason to trust that Xavi García Pimienta’s team can achieve the feat of winning after nine games in which he only did it once, in Albacete (1-2).
The first and most important is that the team is not dead. Both the dressing room and the board closed ranks around the figure of the coach, discussed by a large part of the fans due to the bad results and the little compromise of the Barcelonan, and he demonstrated it last Sunday at La Romareda. The attitude of the players, key when calibrating the need for a change in coach, was that of a group that is going to one, although there is a certain division due to the figure of coach Richi Serrés.
On the other hand, UD recovered its verticality, generated more clear chances than in any of the matches of the last two months and Jonathan Viera showed his best version of the year: he finally put the team on his back and led the yellow game, in addition to scoring the equalizer, which placed him as top scorer with Marc Cardona, both with seven goals.
On the other hand, he gave away a goal again, this time due to a slip by Álvaro Lemos, and once again showed a bloody lack of goal, because he created enough danger to have won and forgave. The forwards have not been up to the task throughout the season and this circumstance has weighed down a lot on UD, which surely with more goals from the nines would be better placed than it is. The seven of the Catalan, the three of Sandro and the two of Andone, add up to a total of 12, too few. For the Gran Canaria, on top of that, the club paid half a million to Huesca for his assignment. The same appear in the decisive section.
And the first date is in Ipurua, where UD is forced to win if they want to go straight. The context assures it. Otherwise, it would be convenient for them to start preparing for the playoffs, as Tenerife did, for example, last season, when they let themselves go in the last days. Thus, García Pimienta could distribute breaks so that everyone would reach the playoffs at their best. But first it has a final of finals.
