Familiar Leeds United face and 42m euros record signing as Whites face troubled Elche - YEP 8/12/22

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Leeds United will face an Elche side battling hard for survival in this evening's mid-season break friendly at the Estadio Manuel Martínez Valero (kick-off 7.15pm).

Lee Sobot

This evening's hosts were promoted to La Liga as 2019-20 Segunda Division play-offs winners and the Alicante outfit have finished 17th and 13th in the last two campaigns. Elche, though, have amassed just four points from 14 games over the current season so far and are still seeking a first league win of the 2022-23 term.

Sitting at the bottom of the division, Elche have scored just ten goals over those 14 games in which they have leaked in 31 at the other end. Their four points so far this season have come from draws at home to Almeria and Mallorca and away at Espanyol and Valencia,

Contests against the division's two giants both ended in 3-0 defeats with Elche's Gonzalo Verdu sent off in the 14th minute of September's defeat at Barcelona who netted through a Robert Lewandowski brace and Memphis Depay strike.

The following month, Federico Valverde, Karim Benzema and Marco Asensio all struck for Real Madrid in a 3-0 triumph at tonight's venue. Elche's biggest defeat of the season came in their fourth game of the new campaign via a 4-0 hiding at Villarreal and 30-year-old Spanish winger Pere Milla is the club's top scorer on just three goals.

This season has already featured huge managerial changes with former Sevilla, Espanyol and Alaves boss Pablo Machín appointed as the club's fifth coach of 2023 last month. Former boss Francisco was sacked just eight games into the season and Jorge Almiron was given the boot two games before the World Cup break.

Sergio Mantecon and Alberto Gallego have also taken caretaker charge but Elche did sign off for the World Cup break with a victory through a 3-0 win at Copa Del Rey hosts Alcora in which a second-minute strike from former Argentina under-23s international Ezequiel Ponce was followed by a brace from Spaniard Roger Marti.

Elche have a Watford loanee in their ranks in the shape of 23-year-old Portuguese attacking midfielder Domingos Quina who has been capped for his country's under-21s. Quina spent the first half of the 2021-22 season on loan at Fulham and featured against Leeds in the EFL third round clash of September 2021 in which Marcelo Bielsa's side progressed with a 6-5 win on penalties after a goalless draw.

Tonight's hosts also have a Barcelona loanee in 23-year-old Álex Collado, another attacking midfielder. Defenders Helibelton Palacios and Johan Mojica are both Colombian internationals whilst Elche began the season with former record breaking Paris Saint-Germain recruit Javier Pastore who has previously bagged 29 caps for Argentina, scoring twice.

PSG spent 42m euros to sign midfielder Pastore from Palermo in August 2011 to become the most expensive player ever bought by a French club. Pastore, though, has played just four minutes for Elche this season when coming on as 86th-minute substitute in August’s 1-1 draw at home to Almeria and the Argentine is now looking for a new club.

Enzo Roco, capped for Chile, is another international still within Elche’s ranks but the hosts are 1-20 to be relegated and Leeds are even money to record a victory in this evening's friendly against a side who are 9-5 to beat the Whites.

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