Badalona II fell to Sestao River 2:3 on Tuesday evening in the Round of 32 of the Federation Cup. The visitors came through in a match that had more heart than clean football, and here's the thing — it wasn't pretty, but it was enough. The date was 2026-09-09 when both sides took to the pitch at 18:00, and the result sends Sestao one step closer to deeper territory.
There were no red cards to complicate matters, and neither side saw a player sent off during the ninety minutes. What stood out was the discipline gap: six yellows for the hosts against just one for the visitors. To be fair, that doesn't tell the whole story of who controlled the game, but it does suggest where tempers frayed.
The statistics tell a curious picture. Badalona registered 181 attacks compared to Sestao's 179 — virtually identical numbers. Yet the difference came in corners, where the hosts won eight to five, and in free kicks, where Sestao earned 27 to 16. Both sides took the same number of throw-ins, fifty-seven apiece, which says something about the battle for possession in wide areas.
What matters most is what this means for both campaigns. Sestao have now moved past the initial hurdle, and by then they'll be looking ahead to their next fixture. Badalona, meanwhile, will reflect on a performance that showed promise in the build-up but couldn't quite close out a game they had chances in.
Recent form adds context here. Sestao came into this with mixed results — a win over Derio, a draw with Gimnàstica Torrelavega, and defeats to Athletic Bilbao's reserve side and their first team. Badalona's last three showed two losses and a draw, so neither side was running hot. This result, then, was about who took their moments when it counted.