TO With 10 days left to finish the regular season, the fight for the two direct promotion places seems to be clearing up. Eibar and Almera, the two teams that have led the classification the most days, have opened a gap. They have left the Valladolid, who seemed the other more solid candidate, five and four points after the two consecutive defeats of the pucelanos. And the Tenerife, with his two stumbles in a row at home, the one on Monday against the Indian team, is already further away, although he still has options. And it cannot be completely ruled out Girona and Ponferradinaalthough his seems like a chimera.
EIBAR
The leader faces the last 10 days of the season with the confidence and optimism that comes from seeing himself at the top of the table during the last nine days. Those of Garitano have been, until now, the most regular team in the entire championship. They have not had any crises, beyond the two defeats with which the course started. Also, gunsmiths are the only one of the four teams that have to play more games at home than away. Ipurua will still host six matches this course, including the last two, against direct rivals such as Valladolid or Tenerife.
ALMER
Almera keeps the pulse for direct promotion after taking a very valuable victory in the Heliodoro. And it is that the three points harvested against Tenerife allow Rubi’s men to be one point behind the leader and open even more of a gap over the third-placed team, Valladolid, whom they now have four points behind. In fact, the faces will be seen at the José Zorrilla in the middle of Holy Week. The Andalusians, who they are the ones who score the most goals in the category (51 goals) and the second ones who receive the least (28), They have presented their candidacy for promotion since the beginning of the course. To show the statistics, they are the ones who have led the category the longest, a total of 16 days, 13 of them consecutively. In addition, the Indic square and the Ponferradina are the only ones who have remained in the top six since the season began.
VALLADOLID
Despite losing momentum in the last two games, Real Valladolid has to host Almera and visit Eibar in key direct duels in the fight for promotion. The blanquivioleta team relies on Pacheta’s experience and the breadth of its staff, improved in the winter market, to reverse the situation, something that is not new after knowing how to recover from the losing streak of three consecutive losses that he experienced in the first round. Since then it is the second team in the category that has added the most points. In addition, it has the important factor of the fans, being the second club with more social mass of the category. On the contrary, part with a disadvantage in this last quarter of the regular phase over the first. And it is that, when he had everything in his favor, he has reaped a couple of consecutive defeats that have separated him from the first. In addition, in many moments it has evidenced the lack of a ‘plan b’ to know how to face games that go wrong and in which he cannot have possession of the ball.
THREE PENDING DIRECT DUELS
Both Valladolid and Tenerife have to visit Ipurua, while Almera still have to play at José Zorrilla.
TENERIFE
Tenerife continues to cling to mathematics to believe in direct promotion. The last defeat against Almera leaves the Blue and Whites eight points behind second place (the seven that the Andalusians have plus the golaverage). They are three games apart and they would also have to beat Valladolid, which leads them four points (three plus the golaverage), but the calendar gives a truce in the next month with departures to Burgos and Donosti and three encounters on the island (Zaragoza and the double consecutive commitment against Fuenlabrada and Huesca). The islanders also visit Ipurua on the penultimate date and the gunsmiths may already be promoted. On the negative side, we find the weakness at home of the team led by Ramis, which has already lost five times at the Heliodoro this course, a figure with which he never managed to rise directly.
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