For the third time, Elche’s magic was in this sultry summer preparing for the centennial season. The Franjiverde team won Leganés (2-1) in a comeback after losing in their first two friendlies against their Newcastle and Villarreal partners. The team, led by Francisco, once again felt the effects of their usual workloads in this preparation phase, but at least they packed a lot more punch than in the previous days to win. It’s not the most important thing right now, but it always helps.
The coach from Almería chose on this occasion a system with two starting centres, but the effect was probably not the desired one. Pepineros came out better in combat, took the initiative and enjoyed their first approach of danger. Those who came from Elche could only look into Dani Jiménez’s space through ready-made pieces.
Javi Hernández, who beat Palacios but couldn’t control himself for the shot, has a good long ball and two tackles from Werner, the first clearing Arnaiz’s shot for a corner and the second Sáenz’s coming out to save the pass. Depth after a good advance from the centre-back was their first chance of danger for Leganés.
The hydration break sat out wonderfully with Elche starting to exercise her top category team status. But when things got better in football, he accepted this blow in the form of a goal. The mid-kick by Juan Muñoz was out of reach of the goalkeeper and put the Pepineros ahead. Runrún returned to the heads of the franjiverdes players, who were almost incapable of reacting until the break.
These possible doubts began to dissipate when a football player like Mojica who could always change scenarios, almost always for the better, came into the game. The Colombian was thwarted at the top of the region by Naim, who had innocently sinned, in an act without extreme danger. Pere Milla deceived the opposing goalkeeper by drawing the penalty. But the reaction of the people of Madrid did not last long, the same penalty heroes in another action, but this time in the opposite field. Naim dribbled Mojica and Werner cleared his shot well.
In this case, another entry by Serbian Knezevic was essential to complete the return. The young midfielder gave air to the franciverde midfielder and became the assistant of 2-1. After Mojica’s center was cleared by the pepinera defense, the Balkan player took the ball and placed it on the far post, where Tete Morente had to clinch the action to put his team ahead.
From that moment on, Elche controlled the situation well. Even Diego González managed to score third in a header from the corner. The defender of the Elche team remained without a trace, but the header went up. On the Madrid side, the only serious skirmish in search of a draw was signed by Gil, who quickly won against the Franjiverde defense, but his definition was very poor.
With this win, Francisco’s Elche gets his first pre-season win and continues his preparations for the start of the League. The next friendly match will be against Getafe, already a rival in the First Division, next Wednesday at the La Finca facilities (Algorfa), where the franciverde team is concentrated to carry out the preparation phase.