Features
LUN 26.01.2015
Just like every year, it’s wide open in the Liga Adelante in a season that is as enthralling as ever. Three points separate top-of-the-table UD Las Palmas (44) from Girona FC (41) in fifth. Real Betis (41), Valladolid CF (41) and R. Sporting (41) sit in 2nd, 3rd and 4th place respectively as they too stake their claims as firm candidates for the coveted goal of promotion. SD Ponferradina (35), who lie sixth, are not far behind a quintet who, for the time being, have become the frontrunners to win the title.
Teams' records in 2013/14
After matchday 22 last season, Sporting (36) were top of the division with eight points fewer than the current leaders, so the present campaign has seen a league that is more competitive and more demanding. They were closely followed by RC Deportivo (36) and SD Eibar (35), sides who achieved automatic promotion to Spanish football’s top flight. The top six was completed by Las Palmas (34), Real Zaragoza (33) and RC Recreativo (33). Sporting and Las Palmas managed to stay up there and competed in the play-offs, won by Córdoba CF, who were seventh at the time.
Feats of the top five
Paco Herrera’s side were crowned Liga Adelante ‘winter champions’ for the first time in their history, with twelve wins, and have now occupied first place for 15 straight matchdays. Betis, for their part, are a team transformed since the arrival of Pepe Mel, becoming the only outfit to beat Sporting this term. Furthermore, they have the division’s top marksman in their ranks in Rubén Castro, who has 15 goals so far and has overtaken Manuel Domínguez, who played for Betis in the 1950s, as the highest scorer in the club’s history.
Valladolid and Sporting boast the Liga Adelante’s meanest defences: with 17 each in the goals against column, they are the teams to have conceded the fewest in the league. Meanwhile, Pablo Machín’s Girona side last week equalled their best ever first half to a season, with 38 points – a haul they continued to add to with their most recent win against R. Racing C. (0-1).
In short, performances that make for heightened rivalry and a Liga Adelante that remains one of the most exciting competitions in Europe. Last year saw a campaign that delivered heart-stopping tension, and all the indications are that in 2015 this suspense will last right to the very end.
© LALIGA - 2015