CUP MATCH TO KICK OFF THE NEW YEAR

The preview of... 

UD Almería-Sevilla FC, Copa del Rey Round of 32. Kick-off at the UD Almería Stadium will be at 17:30 CET. 

History and current league standing

Having dropped down to the second tier last year, Almería have managed to retain the majority of their key players in a bid to make a quick return to the top flight. They are currently top of the LaLiga Hypermotion table. 

The club was founded in 1989 with the name Almería CF. This was changed to UD Almería in 2001 with the goal of unifying the city's fans following CP Almería's withdrawal from the Spanish league system. CP Almería, however, is now back and active, playing in the fifth tier of Spanish football.

The last three UD Almería-Sevilla FC matches

Interestingly, our most recent victory away at Almería came in the 2020/21 Copa del Rey - a quarter-final match that was played behind closed doors due to COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. Lucas Ocampos scored the only goal of the game that sent us on our way to the semi-finals. Since then, we have been to the UD Almería Stadium for two league matches. In the 2022/23 season we lost 2-1 - Ramazani and Sadiq with the goals for the home side after Óliver Torres had given us the lead. Last season, the fixture ended 2-2. Goals from Ocampos and Dodi Lukébakio seemed to have given us all three points, but Milovanovic scored deep into added time to bring the scores level.

Opponent's cup run

Just like us, Rubi's side reach the Round of 32 following two away fixtures against lower-league sides. In the first round, they produced a comeback 2-1 win against UD San Sebastián de los Reyes from the fourth tier. They then won by the same scoreline against Cultural Leonesa in the second round.

Squad news

García Pimienta has named a 23-man squad for the match with Pedrosa and Ramón Martínez both returning. Of course, Jesús Navas drops out of the squad following his retirement while Barco, Iheanacho and the rest of the players that finished 2024 with an injury miss out. As for the home side, Lázaro Vinicius is available following the end of his loan spell at Palmeiras, but Fernando, Baptistao, Robertone, Baba and Gui Guedes are all injured.

Referee

Mateo Busquets Ferrer will be the man in charge. There will be no VAR. Busquets Ferrer has refereed five of our matches since joining LaLiga two years ago. This season, he oversaw our home wins against Getafe and Rayo Vallecano. Almería have managed one win and two draws in three league matches with Busquets Ferrer this season.