Less than a week on from the culmination of the current La Liga campaign, most sides will already be fully engaged with attempting to improve their squads for next season. At least, 19 of the 20 clubs will be, as four teams compete to be the final one through the door.
The first legs of the Segunda playoffs took place over the past weekend, with Albacete losing 3-1 at home to Levante, and Eibar drawing 1-1 with Alaves.
Levante should have a strong advantage returning to the Ciutat de Valencia with a two-goal lead. They are also the top seeds after finishing third in Segunda, with a number of players who were playing for them in La Liga last season remaining in the squad.
They are perhaps the most experienced of the four contenders, with 35-year-old captain Vicente Iborra looking to lead his boyhood club back to the first division at the first time of asking. Ahead of the first legs, Football Espana spoke to players from each side, with Iborra explaining how their maturity can help.
“What can we contribute? We’ve been playing for a number of seasons, we’ve experienced the good times and the bad. So what you learn from that is how to manage certain times in the season, and certain times in games, to know how to react in special cases, and how to help other teammates, especially the younger players.”
In theory all is in their favour ahead of the second leg, but Iborra admits that the league season has little impact on the matches.
“What happens in the playoffs is not really a reflection of what happens during the season.”
Albacete were the surprise team this season, securing sixth-place despite only having been promoted into Segunda last time out. Young coach Ruben Albes, 38, has been attracting attention for both his good results and his bold football.
Such is Albacete and Albes’ impressive form, already he is being linked with jobs in La Liga. Winger-cum-forward and top scorer Jonathan Dubasin explained what has made him so good.
“Well, speaking of Ruben Albes, he is a coach who has known how to manage the team all season. He has managed to communicate the style of football he wants to play, and I think that is very important. He knows how to convey what he wants and wanted to make sure that the whole team understood that well.”
Dubasin was keen to emphasize that they were not changing their approach for the play-offs.
“The message is the same, he hasn’t changed at all. Of course there will be nerves, but we are going to try to approach things as normally as possible, and the attitude will be the same.”
“We don’t want to feel pressured, but we are all very excited to play in the play-offs and show that we are a group that can go up.”
Meanwhile Alaves will have home advantage for the second leg against Eibar, with the tie level. Alaves went ahead in the first leg, but Mamadou Sylla’s early finish was pegged back by Stoichkov. Anaitz Arbilla’s sending off in the final stages for Eibar prevented the home side from pushing for the winner.
Captain Victor Laguardia is now the longest-serving Alaves player at the club, having been there since 2014. While acknowledging the quality of the other sides, Laguardia was convinced his side would be going up.
“We really believe in ourselves, and that’s our objective, we’ve been thinking about it all season.”
He highlighted a turning point, when manager Luis Garcia Plaza gave them that belief.
“I can remember our coach’s words, and there was a time when we hadn’t won in four or five matches, and the coach motivated us and the fans to continue to believe, and it was his words in a press conference that gave us the confidence that we would fight for it.”
In order to do so, they will have to find a way past Luca Zidane in the Eibar goal, who has won promotion through the play-offs before with Rayo Vallecano. He agrees that the 42 games before exit directly via the window in the play-offs.
“With Rayo Vallecano on the last matchday we got into sixth, and then you start from scratch, there are four teams all fighting for the same objective.”
Eibar will be looking to crown two successful but ultimately frustrating seasons with promotion this time. Last year they topped Segunda for much of the year but fell out of the automatic promotion places on the final matchday, before being beaten by Girona.
This year too, Eibar went on a nine-game winless streak in their last ten league fixtures, which forced them to miss out on automatic promotion by a single point. Naturally, Zidane’s surname was a topic of conversation, and he was asked if Zinedine Zidane had given him any advice ahead of their crunch matches.
“He just says you should enjoy the moment. Basically that, just enjoy it.”
Easier said than done, especially when you have the talent that the iconic midfielder had. At 35, Iborra is the most experienced of the four, having won a Europa League with Sevilla, and played in the competition with both Villarreal and Levante in the past too – yet he was not considering anything of the sort.
“However much you try not to be nervous, it’s impossible not to be nervous. I’m a Levante fan too, so it always carries extra weight, and extra responsibility, you have to try and keep the nerves at bay.”
Levante will face Albacete in the return leg at home at 21:00 CEST on Wednesday evening, while Alaves will welcome Eibar to Mendizorroza on Thursday evening at the same time. The final will then take place at the same hour on Sunday the 11th of June for the first leg, with the return tie scheduled for Saturday the 17th of June.
Watch the LaLiga SmartBank play-offs streaming exclusively on Viaplay.
