Eldense 1-1 Castellón: All square at the top

It was a game that promised a lot, but ultimately was perhaps slightly underwhelming in terms of the quality of football on display as whole. Castellón and Eldense battled to a draw in a game that maintained the status quo at the top of the table, and confirmed that it should be a close title race in Primera RFEF Group 2 this season.

Castellón started well and opened the scoring early after a counterattacking masterclass. It was perhaps technically their best goal of the season so far, Kochorashvili, Raul Sanchez and Fabricio combining to leave the Eldense defence no chance.

Eldense found the equaliser in the second half, after Castellón failed to close down on the edge of the box and Sergio Ortuño placed a shot into the net past Alfonso Pastor.

It was always going to be a difficult game, and 1-0 cannot be considered a bad result. The big positive was the constant threat on the counter. Besides the goal, especially in the first half, the Albinegres looked like they had a huge pace advantage, especially with Fabricio and Kochorashvili causing a lot of problems for the defence.

What was most lacking though was an ability to generate chances in the attacking third and a lack of threat from set pieces. The fo

rmer was perhaps due to Hernandez underperforming, he took a number of bad touches and was subbed off relatively early. The latter might be explained by Cristian, the regular set piece taker, not starting the game. Raul Sanchez took over the corner duties, and even though he was technically up to the task, he should have been in the box at 188cm. There were certainly some organisational decisions in the set pieces that could have been improved.

The draw brings Castellón’s run of consecutive wins to an end, but extends their undefeated streak which now stands at nine. They haven’t lost since the first game of the season against Barcelona B. The next game sees Intercity come to Castalia, with the newly promoted side sitting 10th in the table. Fans will be expecting a win at home to cement the top spot and get some breathing room over Eldense.