The crazy story of Elche's route into La Liga

On the final game of the regular season, winger Pere Milla scored a late winner against Real Oviedo, lifting Elche into sixth place and the last spot in the playoffs. Ah, but that’s not all.

The same night, Fuenlabrada headed into their final game at Deportivo La Coruna standing two points ahead of Elche, knowing that a draw would be enough for them to seal sixth spot. However, an hour before kick-off that game was dramatically postponed after positive COVID-19 cases were found within the Fuenlabrada squad.

A long, complicated and contentious saga followed, with Deportivo – who found themselves relegated by the combination of the final night’s other results – furiously arguing that the whole round of fixtures should be declared null and void, while Fuenlabrada were assailed by a combination of compassion for spread of the virus within their ranks and a threat of relegation for failing to comply with anti-virus measures.

In the end – and this is to shorten a very long story – Deportivo and Fuenlabrada were ordered to play the outstanding fixture on 7th August, nearly three weeks after the other games in the final round had been staged.

Elche, meanwhile, were left sitting around to wait and wonder whether they would make it into the playoffs after all or whether Fuenlabrada would overhaul them by taking the point they needed against a Deportivo who were down, dispirited and had nothing to play for. When that game was eventually staged, Fuenlabrada took an early lead and the outcome looked a foregone conclusion. Elche’s season was over.

But then the remarkable happened: first Deportivo equalised through Claudio Beauvue in the 84th minute, and then, deep into stoppage time, they were awarded a soft penalty. It was converted by Beauvue, Fuenlabrada’s disbelieving players were shattered as their playoff place disappeared, and Elche were suddenly alive again.

That’s just the beginning.

In the first leg of the playoff semi-final, Elche were outplayed by visiting Real Zaragoza, not helped by centre forward Jonathas getting himself sent off for a reckless lunge after half an hour. But, somehow, Zaragoza passed up their several chances to take the lead – including an effort against the crossbar – and Elche held on for a goalless draw.

Onto the second leg. Again, Zaragoza dominated. Again, they hit the woodwork. Again, they couldn’t score. And in the 81st minute, Elche full-back Juan Cruz stormed to the byline and cut back a cross to the edge of the box, where 40 year-old Nino produced the perfect finish. Elche had sneaked a 1-0 aggregate victory, and they were in the final.

But it doesn’t end there. Keep on paying attention…

The first leg of the playoff final against Girona was a poor game, played on a terrible pitch at Elche’s Martinez Valero stadium. Both teams were cautious, few chances were created, and it rightly finished goalless.

Girona were quite happy with that, believing they would finish the job in the second leg at home, where they had been strong all season and where star striker Cristhian Stuani boasted a particularly good record.

After a goalless first half, Girona started to pick up a head of steam shortly after the break, with Stuani looking dangerous as a steady stream of crosses came into the box. Then, after an hour, Stuani made a late challenge in midfield, and was shown a yellow card by referee Jose Antonio Lopez…who was then called over to his monitor by his VAR assistant, soon returned to the field and showed the dumbfounded Stuani a harsh straight red card.

Down to 10 men and without their key man, Girona went onto the defensive and aimed for the goalless draw that would send them up (there are no penalty shoot-outs in the playoffs, with the highest-placed team in the regular season – in this case Girona – being handed victory if scores are level after extra time).

Elche, for the first time in nearly six hours of football in the playoffs, finally started to attack – albeit not with much menace. And in the 96th minute, they were rewarded when Milla – the goalscoring hero in the final game of the regular season more than a month earlier – rose at the far post to head home the only goal of the tie with Elche’s first shot on target.

Amazingly, Elche had – it has to be said – fluked their way to promotion. But stay with us, because this is where it gets really weird.

Two days after the final victory, Elche’s coach Pacheta was fired. Well, not exactly fired: he was out of contract, and the club didn’t offer him a new one, even though he had just overseen the most unlikely of promotions.

The reason for this odd decision is that midway through last season, the club was bought by Christian Bragarnik, a highly successful football agent from Argentina whose clients include Diego Maradona.

Bragarnik’s vision for his new club did not include Pacheta, promotion or no promotion. So the triumphant boss departed, and the owner instead appointed – shock, horror – one of his own clients, Jorge Almiron…who has never previously worked in Europe and was last seen with a brief spell at Al-Shabab in Saudi Arabia.

Bragarnik also allowed roughly half of the promotion-winning team to leave, including both full-backs, a key central defender and two forwards. In their place, a trickle of signings has gradually started to flow, but the new names – like the new manager – are totally lacking in top flight experience.

And so, ahead of this weekend’s season opener at home to Real Sociedad, it is fair to wonder exactly how Elche can survive in La Liga. But it’s equally fair to wonder how they got there in the first place, so you never know…