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Elche's training session in 2025 before facing UD Las Palmas. ECF
Elche Faces Its Most Challenging January

Elche Faces Its Most Challenging January

Eder Sarabia's team will face UD Las Palmas in the Copa del Rey and compete in the league against historic teams such as Zaragoza, Sporting, and Eibar.

T. A.

Elche

Jueves, 2 de enero 2025, 12:10

Elche is arguably the most in-form team in the second division, but January will require them to reaffirm their status as promotion contenders. The start of 2025 will be particularly demanding for Eder Sarabia's squad, who this year seems unconcerned about the transfer market, with few movements expected. For now, the most concerning is the interest from Chilean club Colo Colo in goalkeeper Matías Dituro, but secrecy within the club remains total.

Elche, currently in the promotion playoff zone to La Liga after winning three of their last four matches, will kick off January with a Copa del Rey clash at the Martínez Valero on the 5th against Las Palmas in a highly attractive single-elimination match. The club and the squad see it as possible to eliminate the island team and, in doing so, break a decade-long negative trend where Elche has been unable to win the first match of the year in any competition.

After the cup clash, Elche will resume regular competition on January 12th, once again at home, against Real Zaragoza, a giant of Spanish football currently in decline. The match against the Aragonese team has a sense of revenge for Elche, who suffered their biggest defeat of the season (3-0) at La Romareda, in a game where Sarabia himself admitted his team hit rock bottom.

On January 18th, Elche will visit Sporting de Gijón, another classic of Spanish football and a direct rival, at least on paper, in the fight for one of the promotion spots.

Six days later, the team from Elche will host another former La Liga team and promotion contender, Eibar. A healthy sporting rivalry has developed between the two teams in recent years, as they have become direct rivals to avoid relegation to the second division or to fight for promotion to La Liga. In the first round, Elche was already able to win at Ipurúa (0-2).

Depending on the schedule, which is still unknown, Elche could play a fifth match in January. Mirandés, the second-placed team and the championship's great revelation, awaits the team from Elche in Anduva on the last date of this month or the first of the next.

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