Turf Wars | Revolució Quadribarrats | Part 9: Sant Andreu in Europe!

The meteoric rise of Unió Esportiva Sant Andreu picked up pace as exciting homegrown attackers led them to a massive overperformance, securing European football in their first season in LaLiga. That raised expectations and created a massive challenge for manager Oriol Ribas to manage domestic and continental football.

That growth was further reflected in the boardroom as, after a series of expansions of Narcís Sala in recent years, the club announced plans to build a new stadium. Intriguingly, the club agreed to allow FC Barcelona Women and their B team to complete a move to Narcís Sala, which Ribas wasn’t sure he was overly keen on. The board also eventually agreed to enhance the youth facilities and enhanced Ribas’ backroom team, which now has capacity for 14 coaches and 18 scouts. More good news was that the Sant Andreu U19s side is finally playing matches, and the board paid off the club’s £18m debt.

The summer began with a club record sale as midfielder Sassi Bouazizi, who missed training three times last season, joined Lorient for £10.5m. They also sold midfielder Rodrigue Kouadio, who never recovered from a severe leg break last season, to Lorient for £875k, winger Oscar Fosch to Brest for £1.5m and full back Raúl Expósito to Karlsruhe for £400k, before that record sale was smashed as Milan triggered defender Lassana dos Santos’ £30m minimum release fee.

That saw the bank balance boosted to £60m, while Ribas was handed a £30m transfer budget. He was forced to invest most of that into wages, with players suddenly demanding at least £20k per week. But he did sign 6ft 6in Cypriot right back Giorgios Christoforou, who rejected Juve, Milan and Napoli, to sign for £3.7m from Omonoia and left back Bence Tóth for £2.5m from Debrecen, 6ft 5in centre back Peter Digha for £750k from Remo Stars and midfielder Beppe Stoch Rydell for £650k from Bodo/Glimt.

Ribas didn’t feel too much need to go wild in the transfer market and, with that in mind, it feels like a catch-up on the squad depth, with current and potential ability and * indicating homegrown players:

GK: Roy Álvarez (3.5, 4.5), Carlos González (1.5, 3.5)

DR: Giorgos Christoforou (2.5, 5), David Hoban* (2, 5), Adria Autet* (1.5, 5)
DL: Nduduzo Banda (3, 5), Bence Tóth (2.5, 5) Adria Autet* (1.5, 5)
DC: Filip Vávra (3.5, 5), Oscar Rojas (3, 4.5), Nduduzo Banda (3, 5), Daniel Tsankov (1.5, 3.5)

DM: Pedro Rodríguez (3.5, 4), Yilson Cuenca (3, 5), Hassan Khris* (2.5, 4.5), Beppe Stoch Rydell (2, 5)

ML: Genar Iglesias* (4, 5), Razvan Gogu* (4, 4.5), Adria Autet* (1.5, 5)
MR: Endrit Curri (3, 4), Yilson Cuenca (3, 5), Mohamed Haoufadi* (2, 4.5), Adria Autet* (1.5, 5), David Hoban* (2, 5)

AM: Luis Marín* (4.5, 5), Razvan Gogu* (4, 4.5), Antonio Vazquez* (2.5, 4), Yilson Cuenca (3, 5), Hassan Khris* (2.5, 4.5)

ST: Óscar Reyes* (3.5, 4), Antonio Vazquez* (2.5, 4), Mohamed Haoufadi* (2, 4.5)

Ribas ended up playing the more attacking version of his 4-3-3 last season, so he stuck with it. But he would likely move to the more defensive option to take on the league’s bigger teams. The only changes to last season’s starting 11 were Christoforou coming in at right back and Rojas and Digha battling it out to replace dos Santos.

Ribas Aims to Avoid Second Season Syndrome

Unsurprisingly, the bookies still didn’t fancy Sant Andreu’s chances this season, predicting an 18th-place finish with title odds of 600/1. Real Madrid remain 5/4 favourites, ahead of city rivals FC Barcelona (9/5), Atlético (6/1) and Villarreal, Sociedad and Betis (33/1).

Reyes scored 3 minutes into the new season, only for Sevilla to quickly respond and earn a point, before a 0-0 bore draw at Mallorca. But their first win arrived at home to Villarreal and José Mourinho, as late Vávra and Gogu goals edged a 3-2 thriller and they hit top form as a Curri brace led a 4-1 away domination of Tenerife. However, they lost back-to-back games against Osasuna and Girona as the continental games kicked in (see below), then 3-1 to a Julian Álvarez hat trick at Atlético after the international break and struggled to another 3-1 loss at home to their Turf Wars rivals FC Barcelona.

That uptick in form moved Sant Andreu into the top half of LaLiga, and they sat 9th on 28 points halfway through the season. They started 2033 slowly, but exploded into life as Reyes bagged a brilliant new club record four-goal haul in a 7-1 demolition of struggling Villarreal. That win aside, Sant Andreu went a bit draw-happy, drawing five out of seven through February and March, including a 0-0 at home to Atlético. They had Vazquez to thank for two easy wins, as he scored a hat trick against Leganés and a brace to defeat Phil Neville’s Cádiz.

But a tricky end to the season, which included trips to Barcelona and Real Madrid, saw them settle for a really solid 8th-place finish. They finished on 58 points (1 less than last season) after 14 wins, 16 draws and 8 defeats, scoring 68 and conceding 52 (the same and 8 fewer than last season). Iglesias slightly surprisingly won LaLiga Young Player of the Year, while Vazquez was the league’s 11th-best player (7.25) and had the best minutes/goal ratio (117.38), Reyes was the 7th-top scorer (17 in 33) and Curri was the 4th-top assister (13).

Sant Andreu in Europe

Ribas certainly could not have imagined he’d be leading his beloved Sant Andreu into European action just 7 years on from taking charge. But that was the case as they boarded a flight to Hungary to face Puskás Akadémia in the Europa Conference League qualifiers. Curri, Iglesias and Reyes earned a comfortable 3-1 win, allowing Ribas to rotate and edge a 3-2 home win, which set a new gate receipts record of £450k.

Vazquez nicked the same result at Ferencváros, before Marín and Vazquez earned a 2-0 win at Albania’s Partizani and Cuenca’s first senior goal, Vazquez and Reyes secured an impressive 3-1 win at Dortmund. Autet scored his first senior goal in a 3-0 win over Noah that secured qualification, and they wrapped up with a rotated side hammering Wolfsberger 6-2 led by a debut brace by 6ft 7in homegrown striker Conrad Torra to top the group stage.

Sant Andreu got Besiktas in the last 16, and Reyes and Marín earned a draw in Turkey before Vazquez’s late header nicked a 2-1 win at home. Elsewhere, Dortmund, who somehow finished 10th in the group, lost 3-2 to Bodo/Glimt and Sunderland went out 2-1 to Dynamo Kyiv, throwing the draw wide open. Bodo were up next and the homegrown trio of Marín, Vazquez and Reyes led a dominant 3-1 away win before a rotated team drew 1-1 at home.

That teed up an interesting semi-final lineup as Djurgårdens faced Dynamo Kyiv and Sant Andreu took on Malmö. The home leg was up first, and Curri, Iglesias, on his return from a torn hamstring, and Reyes secured a comfortable 3-1 victory before Marín’s goal was enough for a 1-1 in Sweden. And that sent Sant Andreu into their first-ever cup final!

Djurgårdens defeated Kyiv 2-1 to tee up an intriguing Europa Conference League Final. That saw 41,500 fans from Sweden and Spain descend on Turin for a huge game at Juventus’ Allianz Stadium. Rydell got injured the day before the game and Cuenca remained sidelined with a long-term hip injury, and Ribas’ biggest decision was between starting Gogu or Vazquez. And he lined up:

Sant Andreu got a flyer as Gogi intercepted a pass in his own half, played a one-two with Iglesias and crossed for Marín to convert from close range. Ten minutes later, they were 2-0 up, as a short corner was worked to Christoforou to pass inside for Curri to curl into the far corner. And it was all over inside 18 minutes, as Pedro won the ball in his own half and hoisted it over the top for Reyes to beat the onrushing keeper and tap into an empty net. They eased off and led 3-0 at the break, having given up one shot. Reyes’ superb finish was ruled out for offside 6 minutes after the break but they soon made it four from another short corner, with Marín teeing up Digha to supply a surprisingly composed finish. Brilliant play by Curri teed up his opposite winger Iglesias to slam home a fifth after an hour. The Swedes got a couple of goals back, but it wasn’t enough to mar a superb day for the Catalan side.

UE Sant Andreu lifted the Europa Conference League and won their first cup competition!

Monumental Season at Sant Andreu

Ribas hadn’t really been expecting Conference League success, but the German and English sides’ failings were Sant Andreu’s gain. And he was delighted with a final win with three goals scored by players from the club’s academy. He was also surprised by how well they’d done in the league, proving fairly diffiuclt to beat while racking up plenty of goals.

Reyes again topped the club’s scoring chart with 23 goals in 44 games, followed by the impressive Vazquez (21 in 44), Marín (16) and Curri (11). Curri led the assists with 18, followed by Iglesias (13), Gogu and Cuenca (10) and Marín and Christoforou.

Surprisingly, Christoforou succeeded Iglesias as European Golden Boy. Then Digha succeeded Marín to win NxGn with Christoforou in 2nd and Toth 36th. They also had a decent youth intake led by midfielder Norbert, who became the club’s youngest player aged 15 years 189 days as he started a home game against Valencia in early May.

Despite the positives, FC Barcelona defended their LaLiga title by 1 point from Real, won the Supercopa and beat Arsenal 2-1 to win the Champions League. Molt molest! And here’s our annual comparison with FC Barcelona.

Ribas was absolutely delighted with his eighth season at the helm of Sant Andreu. But now the expectations were beginning to ramp up, with the board now demanding a mid-table finish amid the step up to the Europa League next season.

Would Ribas need to strengthen his squad or remain loyal to his young homegrown stars? And could they again compete on domestic and continental fronts in 2033/34? Join us next Friday to find out!