FC Cartagena v Sporting Gijón
Segunda División | Estadio Municipal Cartagonova
Saturday, 2 December 2023 @ 3.15pm
Mid-season relegation candidates FC Cartagena face a challenge against high-flying Sporting Gijón at the Estadio Municipal Cartagonova on Saturday.
FC Cartagena are rooted to the bottom of the Segunda División table, and have picked up just one win and six draws in their 17 games to date.
Sporting Gijón, meanwhile, are second in the standings with 32 points, having won nine and drawn five, and are four points behind table-toppers Leganés.
In Orlando Rubén Yáñez Alabart, Sporting can rely on one of the league's safest pair of hands. He has kept nine clean sheets in his 17 appearances this season, and no 'keeper has prevented the opposition scoring more often in the Segunda División.
In Cartagena's net, Marc Martínez Aranda has one clean sheet in 15 games. He has conceded a goal every 90 minutes, 30% more often than the 118 minutes between goals for Yáñez Alabart.
With 14 goals in 17 games so far this season, FC Cartagena are the league's second-lowest scorers with 0.8 goals per game. And they are conceding more than average, letting in 27 goals at a rate of 1.6 per game.
Sporting Gijón, meanwhile, are above average scorers, with 1.5 goals per game, compared to a league average of 1.2. They have conceded 0.8 goals per game.
The home team are in bad form in the Segunda División, with no wins and four draws from their last six games.
With four wins and two draws over that period, the visitors' form is much better – they have taken 14 points from 18, compared to Cartagena's four.
Over the last two years, Cartagena and Sporting have played each other on four occasions. Cartagena won one of them, Sporting two, and they drew once.
On average, FC Cartagena scored 0.8 goals and Sporting Gijón 2.0 in those matches.
Their last meeting was on April 22, when Cartagena won 2-1 at home.
Cartagena's last match was on Sunday, a 1-1 draw against CD Tenerife, with Isak Jansson getting the goal for FC Cartagena.
Sporting beat CD Eldense 2-0 last time out, on Monday, with Gaspar Campos Ansó Fernández and Uroš Đurđević on the scoresheet.