Following Elche last season, another team was born in this season's La Liga promotion play-offs to stage a "black six" miracle.
Led by young coach Irolaola, Vallecano, who finished sixth in La Liga last season, doubled Leganes in the semi-finals of the promotion play-offs and defeated Girona in the final to reach La Liga this season.
And we have to give Vallecano a big thumbs up. After two years, the familiar face of La Liga, Rayo Vallecano Lightning, is finally going to play again in La Liga.
20/21 West B performance
The last time the "Lightning" Vallecano played in La Liga was in 2018/19, when they were relegated as a promoted polo team in only one season in La Liga, and de Tomas and Embarba in the team are now teammates in Espanyol.
In the 19/20 season, Rayo Vallecano finished seventh in La Liga, just one step away from entering the promotion play-offs, and at the end of the 19/20 season, the 38-year-old young coach Irola took over as Vallecano's new manager.
In the 20/21 La Liga regular season, Vallecano performed decently, and the biggest highlight of their entire La Liga regular season was the home-and-away double-elimination of the final champion Espanyol.
Throughout the season, Rayo Vallecano scored 67 points in 42 La Liga games with 19 wins, 10 draws and 13 defeats, scoring 52 goals and conceding 40 goals, taking the last train of the promotion play-offs with the sixth ranking, compared to the top two directly promoted Spaniards and Mallorca, Vallecano's points are a full 15 points less.
Upgrading the semi-finals of the play-offs, Vallecano ushered in the third "demotion horse" of last season's La Liga, the same belongs to the Madrid region of Leganes, all walks of life are generally optimistic that Leganes can finally win, who ever wanted Vallecano to sit at home 3-0 at home to win the Cucumber Army, the second leg was reversed 2-1 at home to Leganes, home and away double kill opponents to reach the final.
In the final against Girona, Vallecano lost 1-2 at home in the first leg, and when everyone thought that this time Girona was finally going to break the spell of not winning in the promotion play-offs, the Lightning Army made a magical comeback at home to the opponent 2-0, and staged the "Black Six" miracle like Elche last season, returning to La Liga after two years.
New season outlook
Vallecano was able to return to La Liga this season, thanks to the young manager Ilola, a young coach who played more than 500 games for Athletic Bilbao as a player, and was offered a contract extension by Vallecano after leading the promotion, and he will continue to lead the team to La Liga next season, which will also be Ilola's debut season as a manager.
In the 19/20 season, Ilola, as the manager, led the promotion team of the season's La Liga to the middle of the table, and also passed the level in the Copa del Rey, only to lose to Real Sociedad in the semi-finals to stop the final four, and last season led Vallecano to magically return to La Liga as the sixth in La Liga, and the initial stage of Ilola's managerial career was remarkable.
Although the results of the past two seasons are good enough, this is the first La Liga season of Ilola's manager's career, and It is still difficult for Vallecano, who lacks a strong squad, to complete the relegation task in the new season.
Vallecano's two goalscorers in the second leg of the promotion play-off final, Alvaro Garcia and Trejo, were both veterans of the team's last La Liga appearance, and veteran Mario Suarez is also more experienced in La Liga.
In addition, the team's main goalkeeper Dimitevsky played in this summer's European Championship as the number one goalkeeper of the North Macedonian national team, and his replacement is luka Zidane, the second son of the famous Zidane. With Dimitevsky playing in the European Cup, Luca Zidane played all four games of the promotion play-offs as the main goalkeeper, becoming a contributor to Rayo Vallecano's promotion to La Liga.
Since the opening of the summer window, Vallecano has not made much reinforcement except for the bought out of Franco Garcia, who was loaned from Real Madrid last season, and signed former Barca B defender Baliu from Almería for free, and it is difficult for Vallecano to relegate if he only plays in the new season with the existing squad.
Also in the previous season's La Liga promotion play-off to create a black six miracle, last season's Elche last round of the thrilling relegation success of Huesca, this season's biggest goal of Vallecano is of course also relegation, and in La Liga relegation is far more difficult than to kill the La Liga promotion play-off, can Vallecano do it?