Fertiberia Balonmano Puerto Sagunto steamroll BM Caserío Ciudad Real

Fertiberia Balonmano Puerto Sagunto pulled off one of the surprises of the single-leg first round of the 2026 Copa S. M. El Rey after clearly beating BM Caserío Ciudad Real 30-20 at the Port de Sagunt Pavilion.

With the change of competition, Dani Martínez returned to the starting line-up in goal instead of Juani Villarreal, who had played there for several consecutive league matches. The score quickly moved from 0-1 to 2-1 through the connection between Matheus de Novais and Alex Pozzer. Due to several inaccuracies, the score remained 3-3 for several minutes. The visitors’ goals came through an inspired Víctor Morales at centre-back and Jorge Romanillos, who found clear openings in the red-and-white central defence. At the slightest sign of the Ciudad Real side pulling away, Toni Malla called his first timeout of the match just after the ten-minute mark, with the score at 4-5.

Santi Urdiales was not far behind in stopping the match, doing so despite being ahead (5-6) in the 15th minute. The scores were level again at 6-6. The Castilla-La Mancha side rotated their starting seven, except in goal. The first two-minute suspension, for David García, came in the 22nd minute, and the yellow shirts used it to push up their defence, but gained no benefit from the numerical advantage. The home side, by contrast, did profit from a double numerical advantage from the 25th minute onwards, moving from 7-8 to 11-10, the low-scoring mark at which half-time arrived.

The second half could not have begun worse, with Jakob Pelko suspended, but it turned out to be quite the opposite. A 5-0 run, with the Puerto Sagunt side running more than in the first half, led Santi Urdiales to call his second timeout in the 34th minute with the score at 16-10. Javi Domingo’s second suspension did not help their cause, and things became even more difficult when Santi Urdiales was also suspended for protesting, once again leaving the hosts with a double numerical advantage and leading to a sizeable +7 (18-11 and 19-12). With things already working well in both attack and defence, Dani Martínez joined the party with multiple saves. The +8 (20-12), +9 (22-13) and finally +10 (23-13) in the 40th minute left Santi Urdiales without timeouts with twenty minutes remaining, as he watched the tie slip away.

In desperation, the Liga Nexus Energía Asobal side attempted a comeback by attacking without a goalkeeper, but without success. Dani Martínez scored twice from one end to the other, so they decided to return to attacking with equal numbers. The gap was unbridgeable in the closing minutes, so Toni Malla decided to give playing time to two players from the Primera Nacional reserve side who had been included in the squad, Rodrigo Alba and Marcos Castañeda. Once again, the defence worked, restricting an opponent from the top tier of Spanish handball to just 22 goals. The final score was 30-20, once again showing that the Port de Sagunt Pavilion is a fortress, with four wins in the four matches played there so far in the competition, now joined by a victory in the 2026 Copa S. M. El Rey.

Fertiberia Balonmano Puerto Sagunto will have the weekend off in the Silver Honour Division, as their visit to Trops Málaga on matchday nine will take place on Wednesday 10 December from 19:00. The postponement is due to the international commitments of both their head coach and assistant coach, Chispi Vázquez and Micri Rueda respectively, as well as their player Alberto Castro. Their next match will therefore once again be at the Port de Sagunt Pavilion, against Balonmano Soria, on Saturday 15 from 18:30, in the tenth round of the Silver Division.

MATCH DETAILS: 

Fertiberia Balonmano Puerto Sagunto (30): Juani Villarreal (-), Marcos Castañeda (-), Paco Ruiz (1), Rodrigo Alba (-), Jakob Pelko (2), Dani Martínez (2), Pozzer (5), Arnau Fernández (3), Gonzalo (-), David García (-), Matheus de Novais (4), Serradilla (3), Capitán (4), Zungri (2), Carlos Martín (3), Teixidor (1).

BM Caserío Ciudad Real (20): Santiago Giovagnola (-), Sergi Mach (3), Franco Mendive (3), Juan Lumbreras (-), Alonso Moreno (-), Jorge Romanillos (3), Víctor Morales (4), Adrián Trancón (1), Javier Domingo (-), Ángel Pérez de Inestrosa (-), Pablo Mínguez (2), Álvaro Morales (-), Sergio Casares (-), José Andrés Torres (2), Juan Gull ().

Referees: Miguel Martín Soria Fabián and Jesús Álvarez Menéndez.

Suspensions: Javier Domingo twice; Jakob Pelko, Alex Pozzer, Arnau Fernández, David García, Santi Giovagnola, Pablo Mínguez and Santi Urdiales for two minutes, and Javier Ortiz with a yellow card.

Score progression: 2-2, 4-4, 5-6, 6-7, 7-8, 11-10 (half-time); 16-11, 21-13, 24-15, 26-17, 29-19 and 30-20 (full-time).

Incident report: Single-leg first-round match of the 2026 Copa S. M. El Rey, played at the Port de Sagunt Pavilion in front of approximately 1,400 spectators.

Translation produced using artificial intelligence.