Fer Niño (Elche) opens up on his ACL and the visit to La Cerámica

Fer Niño, Elche forward, looked back on suffering an ACL tear at 15 and said Villarreal “gave him every facility” to recover—hence why he calls Saturday’s game at La Cerámica “special”. The striker, Elche’s top scorer with five goals, explained that it was in Villarreal where “everything began”: “I was lucky enough to debut there, I spent seven years and I was very happy.”

Better rhythm, longer road

Niño also said in a press conference that Elche, despite sitting in the relegation places, has been improving after a rough start to the season. He argued that “specific mistakes” condemned them, while now they are making fewer and are “closer to winning”. He added a message to keep things grounded: “You need to keep your feet on the ground… there’s still a lot of League left.”

On his current form, he said nobody expected his tally: “Nobody expected five goals in eight matches, not even me.” The forward, who recently scored twice at Cornellà–El Prat, believes he’s more effective when playing alongside a “tank” striker. And he warned Villarreal: “It’s going to be a very tough game… if we win the ball from them, we’ll hurt them.”