The derby ended all square. Las Palmas were unable to finish off a match in which they played with an extra man for over an hour. Tenerife stood strong in defence and kept out any goal attempts, which were few and far between this afternoon. There were seven Canarian players in the Las Palmas starting line-up, cheered on by over 20,000 fans. Tana made his season debut wearing the number 21 shirt, Rubén Castro was also back in the starting line-up, while Galarreta was back in action following injury.
In defence, an injury to Martín Mantovani forced manager Pepe Mel to play Mauricio Lemos alongside Aythami Artiles in the middle of the back four. The first chance fell to Tenerife with a point-blank shot by Dani Gómez which Álvaro Valles blocked with his body (min. 12). Las Palmas were struggling to find any fluency, while the visitors were happy to sit back and looked to hit home side on the break. The game was turned on its head after Carlos Ruiz was sent off with a straight red card in the 21st minute.
The Tenerife defender brought down Rubén Castro when he was running through on goal and about to take on away goalkeeper Dani Hernández. Pedri then hit a cross shot which the goalkeeper tipped around the post for a corner. Las Palmas penned Tenerife, who up to the sending off incident had looked the better side, in their own half. The fluent football that Pepe Mel was looking for did not appear. The home side were too slow bringing the ball out of defence and created precious few spaces to catch out their well positioned opponents. Half time came with a nil-nil scoreline. The second half became a monologue with Las Palmas having all the possession but with no cutting edge up front.
Tenerife were letting the clock run down. They stood firm in defence and tried to thread the odd long ball for their forwards to run on to. Mel decided to reshuffle his pack, taking off Lemos and replacing him with Srnic in search of greater depth in attack. Benito Ramírez tried his luck from outside the box but Dani Hernández was quick to react to his shot. The game was where Tenerife wanted it, well away from their goalmouth. Las Palmas began to let their nerves show. The away side were dominant in the air and despite Benito, Pedri and then Varela moving the ball around from one side to the other, they were unable to create any chances.
The derby ended in a fair nil-nil draw, just as it had in the reverse fixture earlier in the season at the Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez López.
