CÓRDOBA ALGECIRAS CHRONICLE | Córdoba CF beats Algeciras and faces its last hours towards promotion

The important thing begins in El Toralín

Because what is important for Córdoba CF it starts next Sunday, June 2 -probably-, in El Toralín. The Sociedad Deportiva Ponferradina will be the first rival of the green and white team of the two that they will have to overcome if they intend to return to professional football after a five-year absence. For Córdoba CF, the current season is the second longest away from the Second Division in the last quarter of a century. Hence the importance of this end of the season for a club that experienced its worst season in almost 40 years not long ago, in that 2020-21 season that ended with its bones in the fourth category of Spanish football.. With the bronze division recovered urgently and after the traumatic second round of the last 2022-23 campaign, Córdoba CF will finally be able to enjoy a few weeks of excitement after five years of frustration. It is true that it is still the First Federation and after many seasons of Second Division A, disputes in playoffs for promotion to First Division and even a promotion to the first category of Spanish football, in 2014 – which has been a decade since a month -, it is no less true that bringing joy to the palate is always welcome, especially when The season of Iván Ania’s Córdoba CF left, especially in the long quarter from November to February, more than good feelings in terms of image and game.

And it wasn’t easy at all. This Córdoba CF had to overcome, among other setbacks, the aforementioned injury to Adri Castellano or the serious setback to Dragisa Gudelj. The one who was called up and was during the first quarter the main defensive pillar of Córdoba CF had to step aside after his new cardiac incident in Melilla, at the beginning of December, which forced him to change plans on the noble floor of El Arcángel to bring in a left-footed center back, José Antonio Martínez. While this was happening and with the physical difficulties that the Huelva player presented, Iván Ania “invented” a new defensive pillar in the figure of Matías Barboza, brought up from the reserve team and who in several games transmitted a solid image, inappropriate for a kid of his kind. age, and just when the green and white team needed it most.

Hesitant start

Another added difficulty for this Córdoba CF was in the doubtful start to the League. The three defeats suffered in the first month of the competition generated many doubts in the Blanquiverde parish, doubts that lasted for another month, since the defeat in Algeciras was added to the fact that in games like in Alcoywhere the game was won 0-1 and The image transmitted was not the most reassuring.

However, there was a change at the end of October. The victory almost on the horn against Recreativo de Huelva, in El Arcángel and the point added a week later in La Rosaleda, against a candidate for promotion like Málaga, put Córdoba CF in positions of play off of promotion for the first time in the season and made his followers see that he was as much a candidate for the privileged positions of the classification as the one who most. He had the sixth budget in Group 2 and just had to wait for one of the favorites to fail. Real Murcia did it from the beginning, which was the first to open the door to that gap among the chosen ones. But the final privileged position was won by Córdoba CF.

The best moment of the season

Iván Ania’s team began to accumulate records starting in November, the date on which it began to show its best side and which lasted until February. The good numbers, of course, lasted until the end of the League, but without being able to reach a stratospheric (in game and also in budget) Castellón. The Asturian coach insisted on his attacking approach, quick transitions, opening the field to the maximum with the continuous rise of his full-backs -Albarrán and Calderón- and exploiting the difference made by men who were certainly unique. Álex Sala had a brilliant start to the season and, later, gave way to the consistency of Isma Ruiz. The movements between the lines and verticality with Yussi Diarra’s arrival at the opposite area were taken advantage of by a Córdoba CF that had its greatest strength on the sides. Christian Carracedo’s first half of the season was outstanding, while on the left, Simo’s dribbles were replaced shortly after the start of the campaign by Adilson Mendes who had a stellar quarter in terms of play and goals. Upstairs, despite a period of striking drought, Antonio Casas contributed his goals, which exceeded a dozen, while Alberto Toril contributed to the team from the game, as fundamental support for second plays and setting up rival centre-backs. Finally, a man as important as Kike Márquez, due to his influence in the locker room and on the field of play, gave way in the middle of the season to Kuki Zalazar who exploded again in a team years later and did so at Córdoba CF, to which he contributed play between the lines, assists and goals. In any case, the outside game of this Córdoba CF was something distinctive. Christian Carracedo and Adilson Mendes were figures during a long quarter, practically, and the full-backs played a crucial role: they also drew spectacular centers for finishers (especially Albarrán), who became improvised interiors, generating multiple problems for the opponents on the inside. or, even, they became surprising scorers, since both have contributed half a dozen goals to this Córdoba CF of Iván Ania, who managed to turn the green and white team into a clear signature team.

Iván Ania is the protagonist of this illusion at Córdoba CF, among other reasons, because there have not been enough resources, precisely. The sanctions in the middle of the season (especially those of the full-backs) did not affect the team. Nor the “crisis” mentioned with Dragisa Gudelj or Castellano’s loss throughout the season. In fact, the green and white team has been the sixth team with the fewest players used in Group 2 of the First Federation although, yes, the resources used by the Asturian have been at the highest level in the category. Or he has managed to get them to that level, you never know.

A few hours before the climb, a challenge

But The challenge for Iván Ania’s Córdoba CF will be to retransmit the game and the image of its best moments already in the semifinal against Ponferradina, before which there will be 180 minutes of maximum tension (or 210 if extra time is played). It is obvious that in the last quarter of the League, the green and white team was not the one from the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024 and that will be, precisely, the bar that must be reached – if not surpassed – to eliminate the Bercian team, first, and later the winner of the tie between Barcelona Atlétic and Ibiza. It will be worth it for Córdoba CF to equalize the playoffs, since second place in the regular League gives them that advantage: they do not need to win or they do not need to win by more goals than they lose in the first leg. In numerical equality there would be an extra time of 30 minutes and if the same result persists, Córdoba CF would go to the final due to promotion or would be promoted to Second Division A.

Therefore, Córdoba CF is six or seven hours away, at most – in case of playing extra time in the semi-final and final – from its return to professional football. It has never been so close to it in the last five years.

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