Castilla’s season ends with heartbreaking playoff exit to Ibiza

The fairytale season for Castilla is over. After pushing Ibiza the full 120 minutes, the island side advanced thanks to their superior regular season points total following a 0-0 draw.

Raul was without Antonio Blanco and Miguel Gutierrez who were called up for first team duty. Xavi Sintes and U-19s Alvaro Carrillo were called up to to replace the duo. Outside of the obvious, there weren’t any other real surprises with Raul starting his big names for the biggest match of the season so far.

As brave as the Castilla performance was to reach 120 minutes against one of the best sides in Segunda B (on paper at least), Ibiza largely controlled proceedings. They were clearly bettered conditioned and were capable of one or two more quality passes than Raul’s side were. Castilla spent much of the regular period penned in their won, particularly in the second half when Ibiza pushed for a winner.

Mario Gila and Pablo Ramon were valiant in defense, Gila often dismantling incoming attacks single handedly, while Carrillo represented himself well before he was replaced by the more attacking Peter Federico. The attacking trident of Duro, Vallejo and Arribas were largely starved of attention and, unsurprisingly, it was Arribas leading the few half chances the reserves had.

With Ibiza squandering a number good chances to end regulation time, the match went into extra time. Castilla showed some life to start the extra period, however, as time ticked on with the scores tied at level, the match began to favor Ibiza. Raul team best break of extra time (and arguably the game) came in minutes before the end of extra time when Kenneth was sent clear and needing just a good cross to set up a potential tap in. Unfortunately the winger/full back cross looked more like a shot and slapped safely into the goalkeeper’s gloves. After that, the only chance to report was a ruled out goal for Ibiza.

It’s a horrible way to finish the season and one has to wonder what is gained by forcing players to play 120 minutes, but not penalties. As reasonable as it is to have called Blanco to the first team, his presence was certainly missed in the middle of the pitch with plenty of more talking points to discuss over the coming weeks.

The biggest bright side from this game is that Castilla are assured of a place in the brand new third division next season which, despite being the minimum requirement at the start of the year, has turned out to be quite an achievement given sides like Atletico Madrid B failed to achieve it. There will be plenty of post season analysis from Castilla Corner as the reserves head into another busy off-season.