These have probably been two of the toughest weeks in Andorra's history. The tragic death of Jesús de Miguel has shaken the football world, and the tricolor team has had to manage and cope with a delicate situation, one that no one teaches you how to process.
But the competition demands moving forward, slowly returning to a relative normality. A routine that has already begun this week with preparations for the visit to Almería's stadium, currently the best team in the category.
The Leader
And indeed, aside from being one of the favorites after narrowly missing promotion last season, the team coached by Garcia Pimienta has started the season very well and is currently the leader of LaLiga Hypermotion. It is true that they hold the top position ahead of a Castellón team with one game less, but the Andalusians are coming off a narrow victory at the home of another league powerhouse, Girona.
The numbers for the Indalic team are even stronger at their stadium, where they have only conceded one draw in six matches, curiously in their last home game (2-2 against Oviedo).
Yaako, from Andorra to Almeria
One of the reasons behind the strong start of the Andalusian team is the large number of standout players in their ranks. Almería has managed to retain key players from last season, such as top scorer Sergio Arribas (25 goals last season) and the current league's top scorer Miguel de la Fuente (8), and has added renowned players like Cipenga, Pulido, Javi Muñoz, and Quim Junyent.
But among the Andalusian ranks, there is also a familiar face for the tricolor fans, goalkeeper Áron Yaakobishvili. Yaako made his debut fifteen days ago in the Copa del Rey, although he has yet to make his league debut.
On the other hand, Andoni López is the only tricolor player with a past in Almería's ranks: he played there during the 2018/19 season, appearing in 18 matches and scoring one goal.
An Almost Unprecedented Duel
Andorra and Almería have only crossed paths in one season, the last one. Therefore, the precedents are clearly in favor of the Andalusian team, which won both matches last season. Even so, the team from the Principality, already with Carles Manso on the bench for both encounters, deserved better luck: in Almería, they let the victory slip away after missing a penalty in the final moments of the match, while in Encamp, Andorra paid dearly for Arribas' effectiveness in front of goal.
This will be, then, the second time the tricolors visit Almería's stadium, a club founded in 1989. Before that year, Andorra had competed in the 2nd Division B with predecessors of the current UD Almería, but never in the same group.
Fuentes Molina Will Referee the Match
The person in charge of officiating tomorrow's duel will be Valencian referee Andrés Fuentes Molina, a familiar face for the tricolor team. The referee has previously officiated ten matches for Andorra – starting with the Llagostera 1-1 Andorra game in the 21/22 season – with a record of two wins, five draws, and three losses.
This season, Fuentes Molina, who tomorrow in Almería will be assisted by Ivan Hernández and Christian García, fourth referee Fede García Saiz, and in the VAR by Iván Caparrós, has officiated seven matches with 5 home wins and 2 away wins.
Garcia Pimienta's Praise
"Andorra is a team that knows very well how they want to play, and that is very important. They have a style of play that they have been working on for many years, and that makes them a very strong team," highlighted Almería's coach Garcia Pimienta about the tricolor team in the pre-match press conference on Saturday.
The Catalan coach described Andorra as a "brave, aggressive team that often tries to match up in one-on-one situations, presses high, and puts you under pressure in many situations that make you suffer."
Praise that has also been reciprocated by Carles Manso, who described the Andalusian team as "the best squad in the category."
The sky, calm
With the journey to the south of the Peninsula, Andorra will encounter a much more pleasant climate during its visit to Almeria. Forecasts for this Saturday point to a fairly calm afternoon in terms of weather. Between 6 and 8 in the evening, coinciding with the match, temperatures are expected to be around 19-20 degrees, with intervals of clouds and clear skies and a very low probability of rain. The wind, however, could be one of the factors to consider, with gusts that may be more intense during the afternoon.
Without Efe nor Lautaro
Andorra will not be able to count on midfielder Efe Akman, who received his fifth yellow card of the season two weeks ago in Tenerife, nor Lautaro, who was sent off but for whom the club had filed an appeal regarding the second card. Both have traveled with the team because the sanction had not yet been notified, but they received the news just as they landed at Granada airport. Martí Vilà, dealing with minor discomfort, as well as Owono, Le Normand, and Gael Alonso, have not traveled.
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