UD Las Palmas win their first friendly in Fuerteventura (0-4)
UD Las Palmas came away with victory today (0-4) against UD Gran Tarajal in their first pre-season friendly thanks to goals by Edu Espiau, Mauricio Lemos, and Toni Robaina (2), the first of these from the penalty spot (Photos: Javier Melián / Acfipress).
The game, against the newly-promoted team to the Spanish third division, as well as providing physical and tactical play time, gave manager Pepe Mel the chance to look at players’ levels just under a month before the team’s first official match. In the warm-up striker Rubén Castro pulled up with muscle problems and gave way to Edu Espiau, who duly scored his side’s first pre-season goal after just four minutes.
The idea is for all the squad to get valuable minutes’ playing time in the first few games against lower level opposition in order to finalize his plans for the team he will put out for the first league encounter against SD Huesca in the Estadio Gran Canaria.
It wasn’t long before Las Palmas began to show their superiority against a motivated side who were keen to put up a good show in their first friendly match. However, the away side showed symptoms of the hard physical work they have put into the first weeks of training, as well as the artificial playing surface, plus the heat and blustery wind that blew around the municipal stadium in Tuineje. The visit of UD Las Palmas to Fuerteventura, after a gap of thirteen years, generated great expectation in the local area, attracting over a thousand spectators to the football ground.
Despite a lack of spark and pace of the match, plus a number of misplaced passes, the yellows aimed to please their manager by attempting some flowing moves which were applauded by the local fans. Under 19 player Pedri played the full 90 minutes. Mel had said in his press conference that his side needed to start winning. And Las Palmas duly delivered in their first friendly outing of the pre-season. Four goals and a few early conclusions.
Next Wednesday, 24th July UD Las Palmas will be playing their second friendly. Their rivals will be UD Tamaraceite, kick off at 18.00, in the ‘Ernesto Aparicio’ stadium at the Ciudad Deportiva Barranco Seco.
MATCH STATS:
UD GRAN TARAJAL, 0: Agoney, Carlos, Luis Pérez, Richard, Raúl, Iván, David Figueroa, Abraham, Samuel, Caliche and Borja. Substitutes; Luciano, Yeray (ps), Adargoma, Kilian, Jonay, Óscar and Airán. Trainer: Juan Carlos Ruiz 'Coka'.
UD LAS PALMAS, 4: Josep Martínez, Jesús Fortes, Mantovani, Aythami Artiles, De la Bella, Timor, Mauricio Lemos, Kirian, Fabio, Pedri, Edu Espiau. Second half substitutes who played: Álvaro Valles, Álex Suárez, Eric Curbelo, Josemi, Toni Robaina, Deivid, Parras, Benito, and Srnic. Trainer: Pepe Mel.
GOLES: 0-1, min. 4: Edu Espiau; 0-2, min. 25: Mauricio Lemos; 0-3, min. 50: Toni Robaina, penalty. 0-4, min. 59: Toni Robaina.
REFEREE: Rodríguez Alonso, Canary federation.
Stadium stats: First friendly pre-season match of the 2019-2020 season played at the Estadio Municipal de Gran Tarajal. 1.500 spectators.
