A flush of four red cards ignited the Canarian derby when a scathing tackle sent CD Tenerife’s Nano to hospital. A weak ref and some loose discipline made this the focal point of a 0-1 home defeat to Las Palmas but it was an absorbing game of real passion topped by a penalty shoot out win for CD Tenerife.
The fuse had been lit in the away leg, the Las Palmas coach fumed afterwards that Tenerife were over physical, Suso cranked it up before the home game by publically reminding the Pios there is no such thing as a friendly derby. The visitors looked sharp from the off, former Spurs and Portsmouth player Kevin Prince Boateng gave them a big presence up front, it took just four minutes for Michel to convert a neat pass from Viera on the right. The first half belonged to Las Palmas who stroked the ball about with confidence and looked a division above their hosts
Half chances encouraged Tenerife, Nano was lacking support on two promising breaks, and Omar saw his header glance off the post. After the break home coach Pep Marti made some changes, Inaki replaced Oriol and started to create some openings down the left. Just when it seemed the tide was turning, Aretcibia dived in with a two footed lunge from behind on Nano and as the young striker went down it was clear he was in agony. The red card for the offender was richly deserved but as players poured into the combat zone the ref dished out further reds for home player Vitolo and two more Las Palmas players. It was mainly pushing and shoving as tempers flared, the three additional expulsions barely deserved yellow cards.
That left Tenerife with a two man advantage for the final 30 minutes, it was worrying that they couldn’t make that tell. Inaki fed a good ball to Cristo Gonzalez whose shot was tipped aside by the yellows keeper. More changes saw Darixon and Younousse Diop paired up front, the combination showed a lot of potential, the speed and guile of the young Honduran and the power and strength of the Senegal youngster. The Las Palmas keeper helped his side to hold on with continual time wasting that earned him a booking. The 6,553 crowd, stoked up by the Pios tactics, gave full vent to their anger at the old enemy and their complaining coach Setien but Las Palmas survived and it was down to penalties to decide the trophy.
It was so good to have Dani Hernandez back between the sticks and once again he was the hero with two confident saves. Carlos Ruiz, Inaki, and Jorge struck their spot kicks straight and true to clinch the silverware. Overnight news from the hospital was better than first feared but Nano emerged with a splint on his leg and up to four weeks sidelined. On the same night Choco was scoring to put Honduras through to the knock out stages of the Olympic football, delaying his return from Rio. With just over a week to the league kick off, there are still plenty of problems for the coach to grapple with.