Elche and Celta de Vigo will face each other this Sunday at the Martínez Valero at 2:00 p.m., with the intention of maintaining the streak of victories that both teams have achieved after their first victory on the day before the national team break. The Elche club, which is in the relegation zone, arrives reinforced after its victory against Espanyol and is looking for its first victory at home against a Celta that remains undefeated at home and that shook off the doubts at the beginning of the season with a win against Racing.
The Argentine coach Martín Anselmi has prepared the commitment with a concentration and the dispute of two friendlies during the parenthesis, with the aim of accelerating the adaptation of the latest signings. Anselmi will not have his compatriot Fede Redondo, suspended after his expulsion against Espanyol, nor Yago de Santiago, who faces the final phase of recovery from his knee injury. Buba Sangaré has already recovered from his physical problems, while Lucas Cepeda is a doubt, since he has only completed a couple of sessions with his teammates after participating with Chile in the FIFA window. Anselmi will have to make changes in defense, with Pedro Bigas as a possible replacement for Redondo at the back, although Argentine Kevin Lomónaco could also have the opportunity to make his debut. In attack, few changes are expected given the good performance offered in recent days by Lemar, Germán Valera and Fer Niño, Elche's top scorer with five goals. The match will be marked by the return of two players who offered great performance for the club, such as Álvaro Núñez and Aleix Febas, one of the most valued footballers by Elche fans in recent years.
At Celta, the return of Aleix Febas to Martínez Valero stands out, where he led Eder Sarabia's Elche until he ended up at Balaídos this summer. For this reason, the celestial coach, Claudio Giráldez, has not given many clues about how his team will start in the face of the carousel of games that will take them to play nine in just 29 days, and that with the significant losses of Miguel Román, Carl Starfelt and, to a lesser extent, the winger Jones El-Abdellaoui. Iago Aspas, already recovered from the muscle injury suffered against Málaga, and the Uruguayan Sebastián Cáceres are aiming for the bench. His opportunity will probably come against Juventus next Thursday. Giráldez could surprise with the ownership of the Moroccan Couhaib Driouech, signed from PSV Eindhoven.
The probable alignments would be: Elche with Dituro; Sangaré, Chust, Bigas or Lomónaco, Revivo; Villar, Morcillo; Tete Morente, Lemar, Germán Valera and Fer Niño. Celta de Vigo with Radu; Javi Rodríguez, Yoel Lago, Marcos Alonso; Álvaro Núñez, Moriba, Febas, Carreira; Couhaib Driouech, Jutglá or Hugo Álvarez and Borja Iglesias. The referee will be Javier Alberola, from the Castilian-La Mancha Committee. With both teams looking to consolidate their recovery, the duel promises to be a decisive match for each team's position in the table.