Cubillas. The attacker from Castellón became the hero who certified Castellón’s pass to the final round of the play-off promotion to the Second Division in extra time -in minute 112-. The albinegro box, today in red, curdled a game from more to less, especially in the second half, very flat at times, and had to need the aforementioned extension to overcome a heroic Peña Deportiva who lasted 38 minutes with ten players and 40 with only nine footballers, the result of the expulsions of Cristian Cruz and Marc del Val. Castellón is once again 90 minutes from the promotion but to achieve it they will have to improve the image shown before the Balearic team.
The Albinegro coach, Óscar Cano, only made a change in his starting eleven with respect to last Saturday’s match against Logroñés, in which the Oreluts yielded on penalties, Víctor García was the victim in favor of Íñigo Muñoz. Thus the Orelut squad came out with a 5-3-2, with Muguruza and Íñigo Muñoz acting as lanes, and Gálvez, Lapeña and Satrústegui in the axis of the rear. Ahead, in the center of the field, were Carles Salvador, Rubén Díaz and Jorge Fernández; while César Díaz and Juanto formed the offensive tandem.
They said that the Peña Deportiva Santa Eulalia could be the Cinderella of the play-off for promotion to the Second Division, nothing is further from reality the Ibizan team offered sensations more typical of another label. The first approaches had the Pitiusans as protagonists. Seven minutes passed for Castellón to approach the domains of the goal defended by Torres, but the diagonal center of Carles Salvador was controlled by the attacker Juanto. That first approach was continued with a shot from César Díaz who went to the side of the net. Pepe Bernal put the reply for the insular, the team of Raúl Casañ came out. But with the passing of the minutes the Albinegro team began to take control of the crash, especially thanks to the work of Carles Salvador and Rubén Díez in the center of the field, precisely this one tried his luck from outside the area, but his shot went away excessively deviant.
But Albinegro dominance was increasing, as a result of this came a couple of offensive options from Íñigo Muñoz and Juanto, but both occasions were actions that were too forced and complicated to convert. No less negligible was the opportunity that Juanto could create, but the attacker failed to connect a dangerous cross from the right wing, minutes ago there was already a similar play in which the Albinegro striker also arrived slightly late. The last of the first half was the work of César Díaz, who culminated a cross with a great header but the direction of the leather was not adequate and the ball went out. In the aggregate count of the first 45 minutes, Castellón was worthy of going ahead on the scoreboard but the order of the Peña Deportiva prevented the goal from scoring. With the initial draw, rest time was reached at La Rosaleda, yes, with a key detail for the future of the game, the expulsion, by a double yellow card, of Cristian Cruz from Ibiza.
The second half began with a goal disallowed by César Díaz for offside, the La Mancha attacker picked up a rebound from goalkeeper Torres, who responded optimally to a long shot from Rubén Díez. César himself again had a new opportunity in a row, with a low cross shot that left licking the strain of the post. Lapeña, coming out of a corner, as he marked Logroñés last Saturday, also had it with his head. Óscar Cano’s team was ‘on fire’ at the restart while goalkeeper Álvaro Campos was a mere privileged spectator on the La Rosaleda pitch. In this situation, the Mister Albinegro took Alfredo out and retired Íñigo Muñoz, a natural change in the left-handed lane.
But the course of the second half minimized the Albinegros attacks, and is that the Peña Deportiva Santa Eulalia, with ten players, planted the bus and thus reduced the spaces so that Castellón could maneuver. Time played against Cano’s team. The coach from Granada made a double change, retiring Gálvez and Juanto for Víctor García and Alcaina respectively, to change the dynamics of the game, exchanges that led to a change of system, to a 4-4-2, with Lapeña and Satrústegui in the center of the defense, with the newcomer Víctor García on the left-handed side, and with Alfredo as a winger.
However, in the final stretch came a new expulsion for Peña Deportiva, with a rigorous direct red card to Marc del Val for a tackle from behind on an orellut footballer. Minutes ago the insular team timidly approached the goal defended by Álvaro Campos, but always with a set piece, there were no more arguments for the Ibizans. The countdown fell like a sword of Damocles on a Castellón that could not against a heroic Peña Deportiva, who stoically endured with nine footballers on the playing field. The extension, as it already happened against Logroñés, began to appear in La Rosaleda, and is that the Peña Deportiva could hardly project itself in attack and Castellón was not even capable of generating scoring chances in the last moments, despite its remarkable numerical superiority on the pitch.
Óscar Cano made two swaps to face the extension, the second in this promotion of promotion, he relieved César Díaz for Cubillas, to win in the air, with him he replaced the two starting forwards, and Muguruza for Javi Serra, putting two fresh legs down the right lane. That was Castellón’s bet to avoid a new penalty shoot-out, with the unfortunate memory of Logroñés very present in the minds of the orelluts. But Castellón was too imprecise against a Peña Deportiva that, despite the enormous handicap of playing with nine footballers, it was believed that they could win the tie, in fact the Balearic Islands even had a presence in attack, especially from set pieces. The best chance for Albinegra was for Alcaina, in the 101st minute, with a shot at the turn that the goalkeeper Torres rejected a corner in a providential way for his team. Alcaina himself, on the verge of the overtime break, forced a new stop from Torres.
Nerves were beginning to appear in the ranks of a Castellón that was already beginning to see the ghost of penalties, quite the opposite of the Pitiusos, who were very serene and contained the Albinegros like lions but without using harshness. But when the lottery of the throws from eleven meters was closer than ever, just eight minutes away, the goal of Castellón arrived, the goal of Cubillas, ‘San Cubillas’ from today, which connected in the front of the small area a Víctor García’s magnificent cross at the near post from the left wing. The last minutes of the match were an unsuccessful runner-up between a Castellón that could not sentence with spaces, despite having a couple of actions from Víctor García, and a Peña Deportiva that sought the tie without having hardly any options to achieve it.
With suffering not suitable for the heart, Castellón qualifies for the final round of promotion for promotion to the Second Division. The Albinegro team is once again 90 minutes away from achieving promotion to a Second Division through which it has not traveled for ten years. The event, against Cornellà, which has beaten Ibiza and Atlético Baleares in this ‘play-off’, and with the previous favorable league (3-1), next Sunday (10.00 pm) at La Rosaleda.
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