Pimienta returns to face his former club: Las Palmas hosts Sevilla in La Liga opener
Las Palmas opens the 2024-2025 La Liga season on Friday, 16 August at 20:30 (GMT+1) at home against Sevilla at the Gran Canaria Stadium. A notable storyline: new Sevilla manager García Pimienta faces his former club Las Palmas in his very first competitive match in charge of the Andalusian side.
Las Palmas strengthen significantly after narrow relegation escape
Last season Las Palmas finished sixteenth in La Liga, just enough to extend their stay in Spain's top flight following promotion. The club used the summer to bolster their squad considerably. Oli McBurnie arrived on a free transfer from Sheffield United, as did Scott McKenna from Nottingham Forest. In addition, Adnan Januzaj was brought in on loan from this week's opponents Sevilla, while Las Palmas also signed 22-year-old right winger Marvin Park from Real Madrid. New head coach Luis Carrión, who took charge in June, therefore has a refreshed squad at his disposal. However, pre-season has not gone smoothly: Las Palmas won just one of their six friendly matches, drawing three and losing two. That raises echoes of the disappointing end to last season, when they went fourteen league games without a single victory. Carrión is considering a 4-2-3-1 formation, with new signing Oli McBurnie leading the attack.
García Pimienta faces his old club in his baptism of fire as Sevilla coach
Sevilla also enter the new season with a new man at the helm. Following a disappointing fourteenth-place finish last season, Quique Sánchez Flores was relieved of his duties. His successor García Pimienta knows Las Palmas better than most — he left the Canary Island club by mutual consent to take on his new challenge at Sevilla, and on Friday he will face his former employers in a competitive fixture for the first time. Pimienta is without last season's top scorer Youssef En-Nesyri, who departed for Fenerbahçe SK for twenty million euros. Sevilla responded by signing Kelechi Iheanacho and Chidera Ejuke as free agents, purchasing Peque Fernández from Racing Santander for four million euros, and securing loan deals for Saúl Ñíguez from Atlético Madrid and Albert Sambi Lokonga from Arsenal. Saúl Ñíguez, however, is suspended for this fixture. The record seven-time Europa League winners are targeting a European place this season, a ambition backed by an impressive recent run: Sevilla have won all seven of their last La Liga meetings against Las Palmas. Pimienta is expected to line up in a 4-3-3, with Lucas Ariel Ocampos, Isaac Romero and Chidera Ejuke leading the attack.
Match Facts
No previous meetings in our database yet.
Related
Source: Sportmonks
Comments
- Be the first to comment.