.jpg?h=920929c4&itok=fACEqaah "Who are Arandina CF? Club history, league of Real Madrid Copa del Rey opponents")
Real Madrid start their 2023/24 Copa del Rey campaign against lower-division opposition again when they visit Arandina in the Round of 32 on Saturday, January 6.
The La Liga giants will be targeting a more straightforward opening match than they had on their way to winning the competition last season.
On that occasion, Madrid needed a 69th-minute Rodrygo winner to knock out Cacereno, a fourth-tier team from western Spain.
The Sporting News takes a look at the story of Arandina as the club prepares for the most high-profile match in its history.
Who are Arandina CF?
Based in the city of Aranda de Duero in the east of the country, Arandina play in the Segunda Federacion, which is also known as Segunda B and is the fourth tier of the Spanish football pyramid.
They were promoted as champions of Group 8 of the fifth tier in 2022/23 and currently play in Group 1 of their new tier, in which teams are required to have a minimum of 10 players under full-time contracts.
As the names suggest, the Primera Federacion is the tier immediately above Segunda Federacion, with the Segunda Division (or La Liga 2) the next division up before La Liga itself, which Madrid have won 35 times.
After winning 19 and drawing 11 of their 30 league games last season, Arandina have found life tougher a step up. Before playing Madrid, they were bottom of the table by a point after 16 matches with a record of two wins, four draws and 10 defeats.
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"We started well and then the results did not come," club captain Carlos Alonso told AS this week. "You have the pressure to get away from the bottom.
"The cup is, as I tell my teammates, a game that you have to enjoy. You play more relaxed against a superior team that has more to lose than you."
Arandina club history
Based in the Ribera del Duero region of the Burgos province, the origins of Arandina's somewhat chameleonic history are said to date back to football-playing students in 1918.
The Aranda Sports Club was formed two years later. Players initially sported a black and white shirt and blue shorts, but that changed to their current blue and white primary colours in 1928.
Five new versions of the club started up between 1923 and 1933, only one of which lasted longer than two years.
According to La Futbolteca, the availability of a "magnificent sports field", which it says was inaugurated with a game partly made up of Madrid players in 1946, contributed to the creation of Gimnastica Arandina in 1948.
Gimnastica entered the third tier for the 1956/57 season but suffered financial problems after being relegated from Segunda B in 1981.
Those issues caused the club to withdraw from the league after 10 games of 1986/87, and the club was dissolved soon afterwards, having opted not to start again in a regional league the following season.
The current version of the club was founded in 1987 and has a crest including blue and white stripes, a crown and flowers.
Arandina are recorded as playing in a regional league in 1997/98 and have played above that level for much of the time since then, tending to participate in the Tercera Division from which they have just been promoted. They spent two seasons in their current tier from 2015 to 2017 and a single campaign there in 2011/12.
Arandina stadium
The match against Real Madrid will take place at Estadio El Montecillo, a multi-use stadium in Aranda de Duero with a capacity of 5,000, according to Arandina's website.
The club says the only recognised full house for the ground, which was opened in 1977, was for a successful first leg of a playoff match to reach Segunda B in June 2011. Another sell-out is surely in store on Saturday.
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Could Arandina beat Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey?
Arandina have already knocked a top-flight team out of this season's competition, beating relegation strugglers Cadiz 2-1 at home in the previous round.
"If Madrid beat us, they will surprise us," joked Alonso, who is a huge Madrid fan through his father and particularly admires midfielder Toni Kroos.
"They are a great team, of course, with great players. But hey, people are excited and we are going to go out and enjoy it. And hey, [a shock has] already happened. It could be."
Alonso and the rest of the squad can look forward to another rousing team talk from young manager Alex Izquierdo, whose words in the dressing room before the win over Cadiz, followed by a huddle with his players, earned attention on social media.
¿Cómo un equipo de 1RFEF (3ªDiv🇪🇸) puede ganar a un Primera?
— BeMagistral Football Education (@be_magistral) January 5, 2024
👉🏼 La 𝐌𝐎𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐂𝐈𝐎́𝐍, un factor desequilibrante
🗣️ Alex Izquierdo, entrenador del @ArandinaCF, motivó desde lo emocional a sus jugadores para su partido de #CopaDelRey
✅ @Cadiz_CF
❓ @realmadrid pic.twitter.com/dKi4yl7YxX
"One of the things about the coach is that his pre-match talks are quite motivating," said Alonso. "The emotional thing is very important but there are games where it is not necessary to say anything. The talk [against Cadiz] was very cool, but in games like this you come out super motivated.
"People stop you and say 'we have to beat Madrid'. At work, everyone asks me. I am amazed because people who know me and see me on a daily basis ask for photos.
"The only difference is that Madrid are coming. Most people will come to see Madrid. It is normal. They will support us but the attraction is Madrid."
What time is Arandina vs Real Madrid?
Arandina vs. Real Madrid kicks off at 9.30 p.m. in Spain on January 6, 2024. Here's how that translates across different territories:
| UK (GMT) | USA (ET) | Australia (AEDT) | India (IST) |
| 8.30 p.m. | 3.30 a.m. | 7.30 a.m. (January 7) | 2 a.m. (January 7) |
How to watch Real Madrid play Arandina
Here's how to watch Real Madrid's visit to Arandina in the Copa del Rey Round of 32.
| Region | TV | Streaming |
| USA | — | ESPN+ |
| Canada | — |
— |
| UK | — | — |
| Australia | — | — |
| India | — | FanCode |