Almeria ‘B’ kick off mini-league for promotion to Segunda Division RFEF with fans returning to stands
The homegrown talents host Antequera on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. (Spain Time), with the presence of 240 season-ticket holders at the ‘Mediterraneo’
It has been more than a year. A luxurious setting. The Juegos Mediterraneos Stadium opens its gates again to welcome UD Almería fans back to the stands in order to cheer on Almeria ‘B’ during their first game within the mini-league for promotion to Segunda Division RFEF. The homegrown players will host Antequera, second team in Subgroup ‘B’ on Saturday with kick-off time set at 6:30 p.m. (Spain Time) with the support of 240 season-ticket holders who booked the limited allocated seating. The tickets were sold out in less than an hour!
In this way, the Academy prospects begin a difficult, but exciting path, which will lead them to fight to become one of the two clubs that could finish with one of the top automatic promotion slots. Given that the results of the first half will count, Almeria start in the fourth position with a Club coefficient - a very important factor and to be taken into account during this stretch - of 1,65 after picking up 33 points in 20 matches. The distance away from the second position is only one match.
The youth team boys, as confirmed by their head coach after the last match played, face this second half of the campaign for promotion to Segunda Division ‘B’ -now renamed Segunda Division RFEF – feeling confident of having learned from their mistakes that cost points against Subgroup ‘A’ opponents and that prevented the Indalicos from adding points more often than they actually did.
Antequera goes into the league meeting sitting third with a Club coefficient of 1,66 (30 points in 18 games), and therefore, Almería ‘B’ will have the first opportunity to overtake in the table standings one of the strong participants in the mini-league.
Fernando Santos ‘Nandinho’ will not announce the squad list in advance. The Portuguese coach has the entire squad at his disposal, since Vertiz and Manu have already served suspensions so both of them are eligible to return to action.
Almeria ‘B’ will take on the three teams that made it through Subgroup ‘B’: Antequera, Vélez and El Palo. The results of the first half of the season will be taken into account to rank the sides at the beginning of the mini-league for promotion. The top two-finishing teams will earn automatic promotion to a higher league, while the third and fourth will qualify for the semi-final of a one-game play-off, always playing on the pitch of the club that obtained the best score. As for the fifth and sixth, they will play the quarter-finals of the same knockout stage against two teams who advance from the play-off stage, which also kicks off this weekend. A third promoted youth team will come out of this promotion.
UD Almería ‘B’ are eager to be one of the competitors to move into the higher league on 9 May. For this reason, the youngsters want to take a first step with a victory that would make the 240 fans who will be supporting the Rojiblancos at the Juegos Mediterraneos extremely happy. The match can be followed live streamed on Footters.