When it comes to true underdog stories it doesn’t get much better than this Wednesdays football match where SD Formentera play Sevilla FC in the 4th round of the Copa del Rey, Spain’s version of the FA Cup.
Similar to the FA Cup the Copa del Rey’s format allows the possibility of a minnow facing a giant and that’s exactly what has happened with this fixture courtesy of Formentera’s penalty shootout victory over CD Tudelano leaving them as the only 3rd division team left in the Cup.
Here are few facts about the 2 teams to put the tie into more perspective.
Formentera play in the Spanish 3rd division (Group 11), the 4th tier of Spanish football which features 360 teams divided into 18 regional groups.
Sevilla play in La Liga with Real Madrid and Barcelona, the 2 biggest clubs in the world. La Liga is the 4th richest league in world football.
SD Formentera was formed in 1969. Sevilla is Spain’s oldest team and were founded in 1890
The Balearic island of Formentera has 12000 inhabitants. The Andalusian city of Seville has 700,000.
Formentera’s stadium holds 1000 spectators although numbers will ‘swell’ to 3000 for this special occasion with the erection of temporary stands. Sevilla’s Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán stadium holds 45,500.
Sevilla are the current UEFA Europa League champions having won it for the last 3 years beating Liverpool in last years Final. They finished 7th in La Liga last season. Formentera finished 2nd in their league.
Sevilla played Juventus last week in the Champions League and Valencia at home on Saturday. Formentera played Felanitx in Mallorca on Saturday.
Sevilla lie 3rd in La Liga as do Formentera in the 3rd division (group 11).
Sevilla’s current squad is worth an estimated 200,000,000 euros whilst Formentera’s is worth 25,000 euros.
So as you can see it will be a mammoth task for Formentera to get anything out of the first leg although there will be a passionate home crowd (including me) cheering on the underdogs. The return leg in Sevilla is on 21 December and no matter what the results it will be a memorable couple of nights for the Balearic islanders.
Taking all the facts into consideration there’s absolutely no way that Formentera can beat Sevilla, can they?
Oooo the magic of the Cup!
For tickets to the match go to http://www.trasmapi.com website and put in the dates plus “PACKENTRADA” in the promotion code box. Price is approx 75 euros per person that includes the boat, bus to the ground and match ticket. See you there.
"MAN IN SAN AN" by Martin Makepeace 