Cup Winners’ Cup Champion Visits Cartagonova | FC Cartagena

FC Cartagena – Real Zaragoza has become a classic of recent seasons in the Hypermotion League. Until January 2021, Efes had never met Magno’s team, and tomorrow will be the ninth meeting between them in just over 3 and a half years.

The balance of the duels between Cartagena and Zaragoza is favorable for the three-thousand-year-olds. To beat Efes for the first time, Pilar’s team needed up to 6 games. So far, out of 8 matches, we have 4 wins for Efes (2 in Cartagonova and 2 in La Romareda), 2 draws and 2 wins for Real Zaragoza. The Maños won their last visit to Cartagonova, while Cartagena won their eighth and last match at La Romareda, scoring a memorable and famous goal by Fontana. Curiously, both teams will meet this Monday on the 2nd day of 24/25, while on 21/22 and 22/23 they met on the 3rd day, and on 23/24 on the 5th. Always at the start of the league, except for 20/21, when they did it on the penultimate day of the first round.

Real Zaragoza are in their 12th consecutive season in the silver division, but remain a great player in Spanish football. With 6 Copa del Rey titles, only 5 teams have won this trophy more times than Zaragoza. Champion of the Fairs Cup and, of course, the memorable champion of the missing European Cup Winners’ Cup. And this winner of Zaragoza will visit Cartagonova this Monday with Víctor Fernández on the bench, the coach who led them to victory in the Cup Winners’ Cup at the Parc des Princes in Paris in 1995. With Víctor they were also champions of the Copa del Rey the year before, and with Alberto Belsue, who will also visit us, since the former right-back has been a delegate of the Aragonese team for many years.

Efes striker Alfredo Ortuño spent half a season playing for Real Zaragoza, scoring 7 goals in 20 matches in the 2015/2016 season. In fact, striker Yeclano has scored up to 5 times against the Aragonese team, and only 3 players in the second division have scored more goals in the second division against Zaragoza than Ortuño. The current physical trainer of Albinegro, José Antonio Morga, also belonged to Real Zaragoza and was part of the coaching staff of Julio Velázquez. And, without a doubt, the player with the most recent past in both teams of the match is Iván Calero, who after two seasons in Efes, left this summer to join the big team. Throughout history, many of those who at some point in their career belonged to both teams, among others, stand out: Juan Ignacio Martínez, Paco Jémez, Longas, Delmas, Narváez, Chus Herrero, Cabrero, Loreto, Iban Espadas, Toledo or Tomás Alarcón.

Finally, our coach Abelardo has played 28 official matches against Real Zaragoza: 24 as a player and 4 as a coach. And during his career as a player, the teams under the guidance of Victor Fernandez have played up to 20 official matches, and this Monday they met for the first time on the bench.