MUÑOZ PÉREZ FACES A TOUGH TEST: ESTEPONA HOSTS AN UNBEATEN DON BENITO

Some games come after a win.

And some games come after a loss.

But there are also games that show how a team performs when things don’t go as expected.

CD Estepona returns to the Francisco Muñoz Pérez Stadium this Saturday.

At 7:00 p.m.

The stands will be loud again.

Estepona is back home.

And facing them will be an opponent arriving in Estepona with ten points out of a possible twelve.

CD Don Benito.

Second in the standings.

Three wins.

One draw.

No losses.

And only one goal conceded in four matches.

Estepona enters the match with four points.

With one win, one draw, and two losses.

Their most recent loss in Tenerife left the impression that the team could have come away with more.

And with a question beginning to surface after four matchdays:

Which version of this Estepona team will we see when they play at home again?

Because the Muñoz Pérez Stadium is opening its doors once more.

And this time, it’s not just any opponent coming to town.

The loss to Tenerife was different

The 2-1 loss to Tenerife B stung.

But there are defeats, and then there are defeats.

Estepona conceded a penalty very early on.

Omar Sánchez made it 1-0 from the penalty spot.

And the match could have gotten much more complicated.

It didn’t.

The team reacted.

They kept competing.

They found openings.

And Sandji Baradji tied the game in the 35th minute.

Then came an open second half.

Very open.

Tenerife had chances.

So did Estepona.

Ariel Herrero had a chance to make it 1-2.

Jorge Álvarez came close.

Alberto González even had a chance, but his shot was cleared practically off the line.

The game was still up for grabs.

Until the second penalty kick came.

83rd minute.

Omar Sánchez scored again.

2–1.

And this time, there was no time left for another comeback.

The stats also paint a much more balanced picture than the final score might suggest.

54% possession for Tenerife.

46% for Estepona.

Five shots on goal by the reserve team.

Three by Manolo Sánchez’s team.

Four corner kicks for each team.

Five off-target shots by Estepona.

The match came down to the details.

And especially from the penalty spot.

The problem is that details are also part of soccer.

And now it’s time to bounce back again.

Four matchdays don’t define a season

Estepona has four points.

That’s a fact.

They’re in 14th place after four matchdays.

That’s also a fact.

And they’ve won one of their four matches.

That’s true, too.

There’s no point in hiding it.

But we shouldn’t treat four matchdays as a final verdict either.

Because there are 34 matches this season.

And because this same team already proved last season that seasons don’t always follow the path that the standings seem to set in September.

Manolo Sánchez arrived in December 2025 when Estepona was in a dire situation.

The team ended up avoiding relegation.

And it did so right at the Muñoz Pérez Stadium, with that 3-1 win over Real Madrid C that capped off a comeback that’s now part of the club’s recent history.

That guarantees absolutely nothing now.

Soccer doesn’t work that way.

Past achievements don’t count toward the next season’s standings.

But they do leave one thing behind:

memory.

And memory is precisely what the Muñoz Pérez needs right now.

Not to live in the past.

To push forward again in the present.

And the opponent offers no reason to relax

Because they’ll be facing a team that’s coming into the match at one of those moments every coach wants to experience.

Don Benito has ten points.

Three wins.

One draw.

Zero losses.

Six goals scored.

Only one conceded.

They’re second in Group IV, tied on points with Betis Deportivo, which leads on goal difference.

And there’s one particularly significant statistic.

That single goal conceded came on the first matchday.

Since then, Don Benito has kept a clean sheet in three consecutive matches.

They haven’t conceded a single goal in their two home games.

And they just beat Atlético Sanluqueño 1-0.

It was a tight game.

Evenly matched.

No goals at halftime.

And decided in the 72nd minute by Brian Velázquez.

Afterward, Don Benito managed to protect its lead and even had chances to extend the score.

It’s no coincidence that they’re near the top of the standings.

They’re a team that knows how to compete.

And, above all, they know how to keep the other team off the scoreboard.

Don Benito Now Knows What It Means to Struggle

There’s another part of the story that deserves to be told.

This Don Benito team has just returned to the Second Federation.

Last season, they were champions of Group XIV in the Third Federation.

71 points.

21 wins.

8 draws.

5 losses.

70 goals scored.

22 goals allowed.

And direct promotion.

It was a long championship run.

A battle right down to the last day.

Badajoz still had a chance.

Don Benito had to wait until the final matchday.

And they ultimately secured promotion with a draw against Moralo.

A penalty kick converted by Carlos López in the 90th minute.

A nail-biting promotion.

An immediate return after relegation.

And now, just a few months later, the team is in second place in Segunda Federación.

That explains pretty well the momentum they’re riding.

They’re not here just to learn.

They’re here because they already know how to compete.

Canica has built a tough team to beat

José Carlos Prieto, known as Canica, continues to lead the project.

And there’s continuity.

Carlos López re-signed.

So did players like Lolo Pavón, César Llera, and Nando Copete.

And the sports management sought to strengthen the team with players who had experience in the division.

One of the most important signings was Gorka Santamaría.

The Bilbao-born forward arrived after stints with Badajoz and Intercity, where he had scored six goals the previous season.

At Badajoz, he had scored 35 goals over four seasons.

This isn’t a roster designed merely to survive.

It’s a squad that wants to compete from day one.

And the early results are confirming that.

On opening day, they beat Atlético Antoniano 1–2.

Then they defeated Las Palmas Atlético 3–0.

They tied 0-0 at Chapín against Xerez.

And finally, they beat Sanluqueño 1-0.

Four games.

One goal allowed.

Ten points.

They need no introduction.

There’s one name that’s already starting to stand out

Brian Velázquez.

He was the one who decided the last game.

He came off the bench against Sanluqueño.

And in the 72nd minute, he popped up to score the 1-0 goal.

A header.

Three points.

And another shutout.

But the threat doesn’t stop there.

Gorka Santamaría.

Carlos López.

Lolo Pavón.

Philip Osei.

Emmanuel Attipoe.

A squad that combines players from last season’s promotion run with new signings designed to compete at a higher level.

And it’s showing.

Don Benito doesn’t need many chances to do damage.

And when they take the lead, they know how to hold on to it.

For Estepona, that means one thing:

scoring first could be hugely valuable.

Recent history also leaves a mark

This match won’t be the first Estepona-Don Benito encounter either.

Both teams have already faced each other several times in the Segunda Federación.

In December 2024, Estepona won 1-2 at the Vicente Sanz.

In May 2025, the two teams tied 1-1 at the Muñoz Pérez.

Earlier, during the 2022–23 season, Estepona also won in Don Benito by a score of 0-2, and the return match ended 0-0.

The recent head-to-head record favors Estepona: two wins and two draws in their four meetings.

But that belongs to another season.

To different players.

To a different time.

Now the story starts anew.

And the Don Benito team arriving this Saturday is a different one.

Much more confident.

Much more solid.

And, above all, undefeated.

The Muñoz Pérez Stadium comes back into the equation

Here comes the other side of this match.

The field.

The atmosphere.

The fans.

The Muñoz Pérez Stadium.

Because the last official match played here was that 1-4 loss to Linares.

A tough result.

A match that Estepona controlled for much of the first half and in which they even took the lead.

But it ended up going wrong.

Then came Puente Genil.

And the team bounced back on the road.

0-2.

First win of the season.

First road win.

Second shutout of the season.

And then Tenerife.

2-1.

Now it’s time to return home.

And here lies one of the keys to this afternoon’s match.

Estepona needs the Muñoz Pérez Stadium to once again become that difficult place for opponents to play.

Not out of nostalgia.

For the sake of the present.

Because a team that wants to build a successful season needs points.

And home points are too important to let slip away.

The match calls for a different approach

Don Benito comes in with a defense that rarely concedes.

That’s why simply dominating the game probably won’t be enough.

We’ll have to create opportunities.

Find spaces.

Stretch the opponent’s defense.

Attack the flanks.

Get into the box.

And, above all, capitalize on chances.

That was precisely what was missing in Tenerife.

Estepona had its moments.

It had chances.

It controlled the game.

But it came away empty-handed.

Against an opponent that concedes so few goals, opportunities are even more valuable.

Because there might not be ten.

Maybe there will be three.

And they’ll have to make the most of them.

Estepona Needs to Rediscover Itself

There’s one thing Manolo Sánchez hasn’t changed.

The philosophy.

The team continues to try to press.

It still wants to compete at the top.

It still tries to take the initiative.

It still looks to play forward.

But now it needs to turn that identity into consistency.

That’s what separates good intentions from a competitive team.

One game can go wrong.

Two, too.

But then comes the obligation to find answers.

Puente Genil was one such game.

Tenerife didn’t end up being one.

Don Benito will be another opportunity.

And this time in front of their home crowd.

Saturday. 7:00 p.m. Muñoz Pérez.

It won’t be an easy game.

Nor does it have to be.

The opponent is in second place.

Undefeated.

With ten points.

With three consecutive shutouts.

And having conceded just one goal in four matches.

Estepona is in fourteenth place.

With four points.

With a recent loss.

And in need of another win.

The differences are there.

There’s no point in hiding them.

But we shouldn’t exaggerate them either.

Because this is soccer.

Because it’s 90 minutes.

Because the Muñoz Pérez Stadium will once again be a factor.

And because one game can change the momentum.

Don Benito comes in with the confidence of a team that hasn’t lost yet.

Estepona comes in needing to get back to winning ways.

One team wants to stay on track.

The other wants to find its own.

And that’s exactly what this game is all about.

Not the standings.

Not the stats.

Not what happened a week ago.

What happens this Saturday.

Because there are games that simply add up to three points.

And there are games that start to reveal what kind of team you are.

This Saturday, it’s time to find out.

At 7:00 p.m.

At home.

With the Muñoz Pérez stadium packed.

And with Don Benito coming in undefeated.

Now it’s Estepona’s turn to speak.