🏏 Mon, 17 Aug 2026 21:00 CEST
Deportivo La Coruna
vs
Elche CF
4-2-3-1 vs 5-4-1
Substitutes
Substitutes
Match Preview
- This is Matchday 1 for both clubs. Among the eight sides who have already played, Alaves lead on three points with a +3 goal difference, with Espanyol (three points, +3) and Sevilla (three points, +1) right behind. Deportivo are back in LaLiga this season, while Elche are coming off a 15th-place finish in 2025-26 with 43 points from 10 wins, 13 draws and 15 defeats (49 scored, 57 conceded).
- The headline name is Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who starts up front for Deportivo at 37. The 187cm Gabon forward broke through at Saint-Etienne before spells at Borussia Dortmund, Barcelona, Chelsea, Marseille and AC Milan, arriving at Riazor via Al-Qadsiah. He is partnered by No. 32 Bil Nsongo, and how that veteran-plus-youth pairing attacks a five-man Elche defence sets the tone.
- Tactically it is Deportivo's 4-4-2 against Elche's 5-4-1. Elche's wing-backs are the key: 19-year-old Buba Sangare, born in Elche, who became Levante's youngest ever debutant at 16 before being signed by AS Roma, on the right, and left-footed German Valera, 24, an Atletico Madrid academy graduate, on the left. Deportivo answer with Italian full-back Giacomo Quagliata, formerly of Cremonese and Heracles, and 36-year-old Joaquin Navarro.
- The midfield contrast is stark. Elche pair Gonzalo Villar, 28, an Elche academy product back at his boyhood club after AS Roma, Valencia, Getafe and Sampdoria, with Zaragoza-schooled ball-winner Marc Aguado, 26, who arrives via FC Andorra. Deportivo counter with two small technicians: 172cm Lorenzo Amatucci, 22, ex-Fiorentina and Salernitana, and 163cm Mario Soriano, 24, formerly of Atletico Madrid and Eibar.
- Elche's back five is unusually comfortable in possession. Victor Chust, 26, a Real Madrid Castilla graduate on loan from Cadiz, lines up alongside David Affengruber, 25, an Austrian league winner with both Red Bull Salzburg and Sturm Graz, while 188cm Federico Redondo, son of former Argentina international Fernando Redondo and a holding midfielder by trade after his Inter Miami spell, also drops into the line.
- There are 13 years between the goalkeepers. Elche field 39-year-old Argentine Mariano Dituro, 191cm, who won the Zamora trophy in Segunda in 2024-25 to help drive promotion and has played for Celta de Vigo, Deportivo Alaves and Fatih Karagumruk. Deportivo hand the gloves to 26-year-old Leonardo Roman, 189cm, who arrived after time at Real Oviedo and Mallorca.
- Deportivo's bench features a reunion: goalkeeper German Parreno, 33, spent part of a career that also took in Ibiza, UCAM Murcia, Espanyol, Girona and Racing Santander at Elche, and faces his former club here. Alongside him sits Alvaro Fernandez, 28, whose CV includes Huesca, Espanyol, Brentford, Osasuna and Sevilla, giving Deportivo real depth between the posts.
- Deportivo's centre-back pairing is young and cosmopolitan: 19-year-old Pole Bright Ede, all 193cm of him, signed from Motor Lublin, next to 21-year-old Belgian Lucas Noubi, formerly of Standard Liege, with 191cm Barcelona academy product Arnau Comas, 26, waiting on the bench after a spell at Basel. Their aerial duels with Elche's 191cm lone striker Fernando Nino, 25, previously of Mallorca, Villarreal and Burgos, should be worth watching.
- The wide slots in Elche's midfield four go to 23-year-old Portuguese Martim Neto, a Benfica academy product who has come through Rio Ave and Gil Vicente for his first LaLiga challenge, and academy-raised Ayoub Houary, a forward of Moroccan roots. Houary's pace and agility on the break, allied to Neto's box-to-box running and deep-lying distribution, will decide how dangerous Elche are in transition.
- Substitutions could swing a tight opener. Elche can call on Chile international Luis Cepeda, 23, a left-footed winger who returned 15 goals and eight assists in 72 games for Colo-Colo, plus 36-year-old right winger Josan, a key figure in the 2019-20 promotion, and left-footed veteran centre-back Bigas, also 36. Deportivo keep 187cm Dutch forward Zakaria Eddahchouri, 26, signed from Telstar, and 21-year-old David Mella in reserve.