Saints take on Spanish side Getafe CF in their final pre season friendly, here we take a look at opposition and their meteoric rise through the Spanish Leagues.

First lets take a look at our opponents, the roots of the club go back to 1946 in Madrid as Club Getafe Deportivo, they never rose above the Segunda Division and in 1982 after running into financial trouble went into liquidation.

The current club Getafe Club de Fútbol was founded a year later on 8th July 1983 and as such is not a direct descendant of Getafe GD having been founded by a merger of 2 local clubs in the Getafe suburb of Madrid.

Starting in the regional leagues, they rose through the ranks, but they too nearly folded in 1997, but weathered the storm and moved into their current stadium Estadio Coliseum in 1998, the 16,500 capacity stadium is located in the Getafe suburb of Madrid, around 7 miles south of the City centre.

In 2003/04 they reached La Liga, achieving this only 20 years since their inaugural season, staying there till 2015/16 before being relegated, however they bounced back at the first attempt and have since remained in the Spanish top flight.

They have usually maintained a mid table place in La Liga, indeed the last 3 seasons they have finished 15th, although they have had periods in the top flight with their highest position being 3rd.

They have qualified for the UEFA League on three occasions.

Commonly called Marea Azul, or Azulones, Getafe supporters have steadily increased in number with the success of the team in recent years. There are 18 peñas ("supporter clubs") and 12,000 socios ("associates"). Former Real Madrid player Francisco Pavón is a well-known Getafe socio, while Fernando Alonso and Rafael Nadal have attended matches at the Coliseum in the past.

As you might expect they are not considered rivals to the main Madrid teams Real or Atletico, nor the 4th team in the Madrid area Real Vallecano, their natural rivals are Leganes a team they played a lot as they rose through the leagues, another suburb of Madrid just3 miles to the West, Leganes have been promoted to La Liga again for the coming season, so the rivalry will be rekindled.

So hopefully this has given you an insight into our opponents for the game on Saturday.

Photo: Action Images

codge added 22:17 - Aug 9 Thanks for the insight COYR.
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