That’s it. After adding another win against Bilbao Athletic, Real Zaragoza puts an end to its extensive preseason this Saturday before entering the first week of competition starting next Monday. In this way, Ibai Gómez’s team will play their last friendly of the summer against Numancia from 20:00 in Soria in an appointment that will serve to close five intense weeks of preparation where Ibai Gómez has sought to take the team to its most optimal state.
The match in Soria will take place just 24 hours after the match against Bilbao Athletic, so, as happened with the double duel against U.D. Logroñés and Villarreal B, the management of physical loads will once again be one of the main conditioning factors for Ibai Gómez. The coach already used last week the formula of dividing the squad into two groups to distribute the minutes between the two games and everything indicates that he will use a similar approach again to avoid overloading his players.
Therefore, the eleven that Real Zaragoza presents at Los Pajaritos will predictably be very different from the one that started against Bilbao Athletic. The coach will have to give prominence to the players who had fewer minutes on Friday and carefully manage the efforts of a squad that faces the second match in just 24 hours. In addition, Diego González will be out after the spectacular blow suffered against Athletic’s reserve team, which caused him a brain contusion and has forced him to spend Friday night in hospital.
LAST TEST BEFORE THE COMPETITION
The match will also mean a decrease in the demand of the opponent after three consecutive friendlies against teams from the Primera RFEF. After measuring themselves and counting as a victory the duels against U.D. Logroñés, Villarreal B and Bilbao Athletic, all of them teams in the same category in which Real Zaragoza will compete, the whites will now face a Numancia that plays in the Second RFEF.
The Soria team is going through one of its most complicated stages in recent years. The historic Numancia continues in the fourth category of Spanish football and will face one more season with the aim of leaving a Second RFEF in which it is difficult to find the way to promotion. In this way, it will be a test of different characteristics for Real Zaragoza against an opponent of the same category as Utebo, whom Ibai’s team beat 2-0, and Barbastro, who won at the Ciudad Deportiva by 1-2.
Beyond the result, Ibai Gómez will have the last opportunity to carry out tests and distribute minutes before the competition arrives. The coach will have to draw the final conclusions of a preparation that will be definitively behind him this Saturday to focus all his efforts on next Sunday’s league opener against Nàstic de Tarragona.
