LaLiga 2 (La Liga Smartbank)

Messi983

Senior Member
Standings after 30 rounds.

ExHWzgLXAAcAXj2


Everything very open at the top with 5 teams still having realistic chances for a direct promotion. Almeria-Leganes on Saturday will be a very important game.
 

Messi983

Senior Member
Nah, 5 regional groups of 10 I think, with terribly complex playoff structure.

How's promotion gonna work with the 2 new leagues?

There are 5 regional groups of 20 teams (well, to be exact 3 groups with 20 teams and 2 groups with 21 teams) but every group is then also divided into two subgroups with 10/11 teams.


As for the promotion here is my post from the Barca B thread.

From next season on tiers in Spanish football will be like this.

1. Primera (La Liga Santander)

2. Segunda A (La Liga Smartbank)
---------------------------------------

3. Primera Division RFEF (newly formated league with two groups of 20 teams)

4. Segunda Division RFEF (nowadays Segunda B)

5. Tercera

They'll probably need to find some better names for those leagues in time to avoid confusion imo.


If we get that point we're guaranteed to play in the Primera Division RFEF next season but we'll also have a chance to compete for a promotion to Segunda A.


If qualified to the promotion groups (5 groups with 6 teams) we'll play further 6 games (3 home, 3 away) against teams who have finished top 3 in the other Subgroup of Group 3 (Ibiza, Villarreal B and Alcoyano). Gimnastic and probably Andorra/Badalona (though some other teams can still finish third in our Subgroup 3A) will also be a part of this new promotion group but we won't play against them again.

Then top 3 teams (and the best 4th placed team) from those 5 new promotion groups will qualify to the Promotion play-offs for Segunda A where we'd still need to beat two opponents (play-offs will be played in a single eliminatory game) to be among the four teams promoted to Segunda.

It won't be easy but it's doable though for development of our youngsters it would probably be better to play in that newly founded league which (at least in theory) should have more quality teams than it does now.

Here is also a graphic (which is probably better than my explanation:))

infografia-segunda-b-2020-2021-marca.jpg
 

Messi983

Senior Member
Ey1znzXWUAAj24_



Espanyol and Mallorca very close to return to La Liga.

No team sitting 3rd and being 8 points or more behind 2nd placed team with 8 rounds left has so far managed to get directly promoted so it will be almost impossible for Almeria doing that considering they're also in poor form (just 4 points from last 5 games) though they've also had some unlucky referee decisions going against them including a great goal by Robertone which was disallowed for a marginal offside earlier in the action.



Four playoff teams have also distanced themselves from Girona and other teams behind them.
 

Vilarrubi

New member
Ey1znzXWUAAj24_



Espanyol and Mallorca very close to return to La Liga.

No team sitting 3rd and being 8 points or more behind 2nd placed team with 8 rounds left has so far managed to get directly promoted so it will be almost impossible for Almeria doing that considering they're also in poor form (just 4 points from last 5 games) though they've also had some unlucky referee decisions going against them including a great goal by Robertone which was disallowed for a marginal offside earlier in the action.



Four playoff teams have also distanced themselves from Girona and other teams behind them.

Shame about Girona... any chance they can make it?
 

khaled_a_d

Senior Member
Shame about Girona... any chance they can make it?

3-6 make play-off tournament in order to qualify, so basically Girona needs to move one place to be in it.
For me I prefer Almeria or Rayo, the former are backed up by MBS right hand man and while he is crazy, it is nice to get some investments and money in Liga.
With the later, I always loved the way Rayo played, although Paco is no longer there.
 

Vilarrubi

New member
3-6 make play-off tournament in order to qualify, so basically Girona needs to move one place to be in it.
For me I prefer Almeria or Rayo, the former are backed up by MBS right hand man and while he is crazy, it is nice to get some investments and money in Liga.
With the later, I always loved the way Rayo played, although Paco is no longer there.

Girona is half owned by City Football Group (Man City guys). Along with being another Catalan club and Pep’s brother being a chairman too. No brainer for me that they should be in La Liga.
 
Last edited:

Messi983

Senior Member
Shame about Girona... any chance they can make it?

Don't see it happen. Their chances for top 6 would be much bigger if they'd win (or at least draw) against Rayo last weekend. With a win they'd be leveled on points (though Rayo would still have a game in hand). Their schedule is not too hard though, besides Gijon and Malaga other teams they'll still face are bottom table teams. But they're just too inconsistent and could drop points against any team.

3-6 make play-off tournament in order to qualify, so basically Girona needs to move one place to be in it.
For me I prefer Almeria or Rayo, the former are backed up by MBS right hand man and while he is crazy, it is nice to get some investments and money in Liga.
With the later, I always loved the way Rayo played, although Paco is no longer there.

Ideally both Rayo and Almeria would be promoted and Espanyol would stay down for another season but that's almost impossible at this point.

I quite like Almeria, they have a good project with some solid young players. Would be interesting to see how much they'd spend if they'll be promoted. They've invested around 20m in each of last two summer transfer windows but they've also sold Darwin Nunez for 24m last year so their net spend was positive. They might sell Umar Sadiq this summer for 15-20m again but can they afford to keep him (he's an ok player and could potentially do well in La Liga although according to AS Bayern is apparently interested in him so what do I know? :D) while also invest like 20-30m in new players?

They have players like Akieme, Manu Morlanes, Samu Costa and Brian Rodriguez on loans from other clubs and they'll probably use buy options they have on them if promoted (could be they're actually contractually obligated to buy some of those players if they're promoted, don't know all the details). So I think they could have a solid core but besides bringing more youngsters (I'd assume they'll use a loan with buy options again trying to get some "rejects" from bigger Spanish and Portuguese clubs - with their manager being a Portuguese) they would also need to add some proven La Liga players who are now playing for other midtable La Liga teams to bring them experience.

Their current older players like Villar, Petrović or De La Hoz aren't even regulars in Segunda so I doubt they'll keep them around if promoted. Someone like Corpas who has scored 11 goals this season could be good enough to make a jump to La Liga (at least as a backup), despite him never playing a top level football being 29 already. He spent most of his career in lower leagues before establishing himself in Almeria in Segunda over the last three seasons so if promoted I think it would be fair to give him a chance in La Liga but we'll see.

What I don't think they should do is doing a full roster makeover bringing in like 20 new players like they did last summer.
 

Messi983

Senior Member
Espanyol very close to return to La Liga. Girona's situation also better than two weeks ago.

Ez7gNMXX0AMgBgL


Also, Almeria have sacked Jose Gomes and replaced him with our old friend Rubi who has signed until 2023. They've been in poor form recently (also a bit unlucky) but don't think this is the right decision for them.
 

El Gato

Villarato!
I know chance is rather small but wouldn't it be funny if we got the Clasico in promotion playoffs?

Castilla at least could make an interesting game between Raul and Xabi Alonso as managers in the first leg of playoffs.

Sucks that teams which finished 3rd must win both games to get promoted. No real incentive for top seeds to go for it.
 
Last edited:

Messi983

Senior Member
Espanyol won Segunda despite losing in last round against Alcorcon (they've stayed up after this win) as Mallorca conceded late vs Ponferradina (it was a great goal tbh :worthy:) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSxHXL2XpE4

Sporting Gijon lost at home to Almeria so Rayo took the last playoff spot despite them also losing against Lugo who needed those 3 points to stay in Segunda.


Sabadell and Logrones joined Castellon and Albacete who were already previously relegated.

E2qiPVvWUAY8oQp


E2qjaF_WQAEC_aZ


E2qo6PIXwAIinO5



Promotion playoff semi-finals will be played on Wednesday/Thursday and Saturday/Sunday.

E2qqG8aXIAIvpWI
 

Home of Barca Fans

Top