Life doesn’t get much better, CD Tenerife back to winning ways, Nino looking sharp and scoring goals, and CDT up in 12th position in La Liga, hmm wonder why my head hurts this morning. Coach Oltra surprised many people by recalling Hector to left back to replace the suspended Bellvis, but he played a strong part in this tremendous 2-1 home win over Sporting Gijon.
The game was just 2 minutes old when the 19,281 crowd erupted as Tenerife seemed to take the lead. Sicilia headed the ball at the goal and it looked to have crossed the line before former Tenerife goalie Juan Pablo clawed it back, the referee was having none of it and waved play on. Within a minute Sporting took the lead, Diego Castro beat Juanlu and fired the ball past Sergio for an early lead.
Tenerife reacted well and fought hard to control the game, Mikel Alonso was having another great game in midfield and Ricardo was on top of his game, spreading intelligent passes to pick out his team mates. Nino had a couple of chances but couldn’t quite convert them, it was clear that he was feeling more confident and looking like the player that led the scoring charts last season. Oltra got banished to the stands after 19 minutes, the referee said afterwards that he was shouting and screaming too much – sensitive soul.
Tenerife dominated the second half, Ricardo beat his marker and unleashed a goal bound strike from outside the area to level the scores after 54 minutes. Angel was brought on for Kome to add to the attack as Tenerife went in search of the winner. It soon came when Nino shrugged off the defence and fired a hard shot past Juan Pablo from an acute angle to make it 2-1. There was only one team in it now, Sporting couldn’t match Tenerife’s hunger and hard work, Angel had 3 decent chances to increase the lead, the nest just before the final whistle.
The several hundred Sporting fans went home empty handed, but for Tenerife fans it was another convincing victory. Next Sunday is Getafe away, I will be in Madrid for the weekend with a large selection of hand picked ambassadors for our island, confidence is high, even if the temperature will be chillingly low.