2026/2027 season

La Liga

Team page
La Liga · Team page
Celta de Vigo
Head coach: Claudio Giráldez · 3-4-3 (onze aligné en J3 contre l'Athletic selon El Desmarque ; Giráldez alterne régulièrement les structures, la presse galicienne parlant d'un 'Celta caméléon' — système non figé)
Rank
13th
Pts
8
P
8
Form
🟡 Average

The essentials at a glance

The summary of this page: estimated level of play, form trend and qualitative verdict. For the details, head to the other tabs.

Editors' ratings
4/10
Attack
10/10
Defence
5/10
Form
4/10
Confidence / mood
Current risk:Medium

13th with 8 pts from 8 matches: 1 win, 5 draws, 2 defeats.

8 goals scored, 6 conceded.

Still not to digest the blow that it meant to lose to the Juventus in the elongation, the Celta receives on Sunday the Alavés in Balaídos, where five months ago Quique Sánchez Flores celebrated his first victory as a Vitorian technician after the epic dating back from his team, which raised a 3-0 in the second part.

Mundo Deportivo · 18 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

Francisco Conceição was the holder of the victory of Juventus in front of the Celta de Vigo (1-2), this Thursday, in play counting for the second day of the Europa League. The extreme was replaced at the passage of minute 64 and exploded in the bench of alternates, having hit it with a punch, before arguing with a deputy and heading to the locker rooms.

zerozero · 16 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

Bad news for the Celta. Borja Iglesias, 33 years old, suffers a myotendinous break in the oil of the left leg, as confirmed by the club following medical tests in the last hours. The striker was injured last Tuesday during a training at the Afouteza Sports Cidade, when he noticed acute pain.

Mundo Deportivo · 16 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

How the team has played recently

Match-by-match results, record and rhythm of the current season.

Latest matches
Dvs Elche CF (A) · 0-0
Wvs Real Racing Club de Santander (H) · 5-0
Dvs Málaga CF (H) · 1-1
Dvs Getafe CF (A) · 1-1
Dvs Real Sociedad de Fútbol (A) · 0-0
WDDDDDLL
8 scored / 6 conceded over 8 matches played
Rest: 7 days since the last match · 1 match played in the last 15 days
Home form
1W - 1D - 2L
Away form
0W - 4D - 0L
Statistics

Computed from this season's scores, every time the page is shown.

Goals scored per match
1.4
Goals conceded per match
0.4
At home
6 scored · 1 conceded in 2 matches
Away
1 scored · 1 conceded in 3 matches
Over 2.5 goals
1 of 5
Both teams score
2 of 5
Clean sheets
3 of 5
Failed to score
2 of 5
Cumulative points vs league average

Not enough matchdays recorded yet for this curve — history builds up with every standings refresh.

How Celta de Vigo play

System, playing identity, and what sets the team apart at both ends of the pitch.

Playing identity
Preferred system
3-4-3 (onze aligné en J3 contre l'Athletic selon El Desmarque ; Giráldez alterne régulièrement les structures, la presse galicienne parlant d'un 'Celta caméléon' — système non figé)
Philosophy
Positional play and short build-up from the back, width provided by wing-backs, and attacking play based on short combinations in the half-spaces, with strong integration of club-trained players (Celta Fortuna).
Attacking strengths
Verified fact: only one goal scored in three matchdays of LaLiga 2026-27 (0-0 at Valencia on 22/08, 1-2 against Osasuna on 27/08 — goal from Iago Aspas in the 13th — 0-2 against Athletic on 30/08), the weakest offensive output at the start of the season for a team qualified for the Europa League.
Defensive solidity
Verified fact: 4 goals conceded in 3 matches and two consecutive home defeats at Balaídos; the local press describes a first half against Athletic as “among the worst since Giráldez arrived”, with build-up play impossible to execute under the Basque side's pressing (Atlántico Diario, 31/08/2026).
Pressing
Fairly high pressing triggered against the opposition's build-up in Giráldez's project, but its effectiveness cannot be measured over 3 matches and no statistical data (PPDA, high recoveries) could be verified for 2026-27.
Transitions
Celta have mostly suffered from transitions at the start of the season: Athletic's two goals (Berenguer 20', Robert Navarro 22') stemmed from a low turnover and a ball lost by Aleix Febas, according to El Desmarque and Atlántico Diario. No verified statistical data on offensive transitions.
StrengthContinuity of the project (Giráldez in charge since March 2024, under contract until June 2028 according to BeSoccer), a second consecutive Europa League qualification, a productive academy pathway (Javi Rodríguez and Hugo González promoted from Celta Fortuna), and a successful attacking signing with the permanent arrival of Couhaib Driouech (PSV, contract until 2030).
WeaknessA squad shortage publicly acknowledged by the head coach: after matchday 3, Giráldez called for a right-footed centre-back and a holding midfielder (“Estamos un poco corto de efectivos en esas posiciones”, Metropolitano, 31/08/2026). A reshuffled centre-back pairing (a poor debut for Abdoulaye Faye, rated 3/10 by El Desmarque), the absence of Marcos Alonso, and a toothless attack.

The mood around the club, and who is missing

Internal climate, relationship with the supporters, and known absences before the next match.

Mood
Squad confidence
Still low on the pitch: a single point from three matchdays, two home defeats and a public admission from the head coach about his team's “defensive behaviour” against Athletic, which he “did not like at all”. Giráldez shows clear satisfaction with the transfer market, however, saying he is “happy, satisfied” to have got his right-sided centre-back and to have kept the players others wanted. The schedule allows no breathing space: after the trip to Anoeta brought forward to 3 September, Celta go to Getafe and then start their Europa League campaign. The good news comes from the institution, with the fifty-year concession of Balaídos approved on the very day of the Basque trip.
Coach / players / board relationship
The tone has changed between bench and boardroom since the window closed. Having publicly asked for two additions at the end of August, on 3 September Claudio Giráldez praised “a significant financial effort by the club” and said he had “a very balanced squad that will allow us to compete with guarantees”. He does maintain one acknowledged regret: “we were short of that ball-playing central midfielder”. The Carles Pérez situation, a player frozen out and then released, was resolved without any public clash between club and staff, even if the player expressed his bitterness on leaving.
Mood with the supporters
The mood had soured with boos from part of Balaídos against Athletic, a phenomenon the Galician press described as rare at this stage of the season. The city council's decision of 3 September changes the perspective, however: the concession of the stadium to the club for fifty years, extendable to seventy-five, with naming rights and commercial exploitation, secures the ground's future and its bond with the celtismo. Mayor Abel Caballero called the moment one of “historic importance for the city”, and the text requires Balaídos to remain the first team's stadium. On the pitch, the crowd's patience will depend on a first win, still awaited.
Pressure on the head coach
Moderate but rising as long as the first win does not come. Claudio Giráldez's credit remains solid after two consecutive European qualifications and no source consulted suggests a threat to his position. The run is demanding nonetheless: a trip to Anoeta brought forward, then Getafe, then the Europa League opener, with a squad without Borja Iglesias and Aleix Febas. The head coach himself raised the bar by judging the defensive performance against Athletic harshly.
Club objectives
No official numerical objective could be verified for 2026-27. The context is that of a club in the Europa League league phase, with eight matches to play on top of the league, and a squad the head coach now judges “competitive” and “very balanced”. The immediate priority is in points terms: getting out of the relegation zone, where Celta sit seventeenth before the trip to Anoeta. Institutionally, the Balaídos concession opens the way to commercial exploitation of the stadium, naming rights included, which should strengthen the club's own revenue.
Recent internal tensions
The window's tensions have largely dissipated: Giráldez got his centre-back and now speaks of a significant financial effort by the club. The most uncomfortable situation, that of Carles Pérez, was resolved by a contract termination and then a free signing at Girona, the player publicly regretting that he had not been able to “leave in a better way”. No open conflict between head coach and board is reported by the sources consulted. The residual pressure is sporting: two home defeats, boos and a single point taken.
Absences
InjuredBorja Iglesias — Soleus tear; return put at the start of September by FútbolFantasy. Absent from the squad named for Anoeta.
InjuredAleix Febas — Rib contusion; announced as unavailable until matchday 6. Absent from the squad named for Anoeta.

Before kick-off

What to know before the next match: statistical form, qualitative analysis, and a computed estimate of the 1/X/2 probabilities.

Next match

Celta de Vigo — Deportivo Alavés

At homeSunday 18 October at 16:15Matchday 9
It's today. Kick-off time confirmed by the league. Paris time · football-data.org fixtures.

Prediction, odds and form of both teams →

What the press says
  • El Celta busca oxígeno y el Alavés romper su mala rachaStill not to digest the blow that it meant to lose to the Juventus in the elongation, the Celta receives on Sunday the Alavés in Balaídos, where five months ago Quique Sánchez Flores celebrated his first victory as a Vitorian technician after the epic dating back from his team, which raised a 3-0 in the second part.Mundo Deportivo · 18 Oct 2026 · machine-translated
Prediction
EstimateCelta de Vigo — Deportivo Alavés
39 %
1 · Celta de Vigo
30 %
X · draw
31 %
2 · Deportivo Alavés
In-house calculation, from this page's standings data alone: 8 matches played by Celta de Vigo, 8 matches by Deportivo Alavés. Confidence: fair
The formula, in plain words — with this match's figures
  1. League average. 238 goals scored over 159 team-matches played (19 teams taken into account), i.e. μ = 1.50 goal scored per team per match. This is the reference point: everything that follows is expressed relative to it.
  2. Attacking and defensive strengths. Goals scored (or conceded) per match, divided by μ. 1.00 = exactly average; in defence, above 1.00 means “concedes more than average”.
    TeamGoalsRawKept
    Celta de Vigo — attack8 in 8 matches0.670.81
    Celta de Vigo — defence6 in 8 matches0.500.71
    Deportivo Alavés — attack12 in 8 matches1.001.00
    Deportivo Alavés — defence8 in 8 matches0.670.81
    The “Kept” column is the result of shrinkage towards the mean: weight = P / (P + 6), i.e. 0.57 for Celta de Vigo and 0.57 for Deportivo Alavés. The rest of the weight goes to the league average. This is what stops a lone 5-0 from producing an attack at 3.3 times the average — and hence a 95% probability.
  3. Home advantage (γ). Measured on the league itself: 1.76 goal scored on average by the host against 1.38 by the visitor, over the 45 fixtures present in each team's last 5 matches. Raw ratio 1.27; shrunk towards 1 (weight 0.43, on the log of the ratio) then capped at 1.25 → γ = 1.11. Shrinkage goes towards 1, i.e. no advantage at all: while the sample is small, the model does not assert a home advantage it cannot measure.
  4. Venue correction, specific to each team. Drawn from the home/away split: points per match at the venue concerned are compared to points per match over all fixtures, with stronger shrinkage (weight = P / (P + 8)) and a bound of ±12%.
    Celta de Vigo at home: 1.00 pts/match versus 1.00 overall over 4 matches → ×1.000
    Deportivo Alavés away: 0.67 pts/match versus 1.38 overall over 3 matches → ×0.880
  5. Expected goals. One side's attack is set against the other's defence. γ applies to the host only: applying it the other way round too would count the home advantage twice.
    λCelta de Vigo = 1.50 × 0.81 × 0.81 × 1.11 × 1.000 = 1.09
    λDeportivo Alavés = 1.50 × 1.00 × 0.71 × 0.880 = 0.94
  6. Poisson grid. Probability of every exact score from 0-0 to 8-8, assuming the two goal totals are independent, then adding up the cells: home win 38.6%, draw 30.4%, away win 31.0% — displayed rounded to whole numbers so that they add up to exactly 100. Most likely exact score in the grid: 1-0 (only 14.3%, which says enough about how unpredictable an exact score is).
Limits of this model — they are not anecdotal.
  • It only knows goals and a venue. Neither absences, suspensions, line-ups, fatigue, stakes, weather nor club context enter the calculation — while the other tabs of this page show that they matter.
  • The assumption that the two goal totals are independent is false in reality: it slightly underestimates tight scores, hence the draw.
  • γ is measured over a rolling window (each team's last 5 matches), not over the whole season.
  • The shrinkage constants (6, 60, 8) and the bounds are choices, not measurements. They were tuned to be cautious early in the season; they were not calibrated on a results history, as none is available here.
  • No after-the-fact evaluation has been made: at this stage, nobody knows whether this model is better or worse calibrated than another.
What other sources say
No external source has been collected for this match. That is the normal state: readings are taken by hand, and an empty box is better than an unverified figure.
This block shows probability estimates, not predictions, and carries no advisory value. The in-house estimate is the result of a formula applied to a small sample; the figures from external sources are reproduced as they were collected, without their method having been verified.

The full squad

The professional squad by position, captain marked with an armband.

Goalkeepers
  • Ionuț Radu
  • Altay Bayındır
  • Iván Villar
  • Marcos González
Defenders
  • Carl Starfelt
  • Marcos Alonso
  • Abdoulaye Faye
  • Javi Galán
  • Javi Rodríguez
  • Pablo Meixús
  • Manu Fernández
  • Quique Ribes
  • Yoel Lago
Midfielders
  • Ilaix Moriba
  • Aleix Febas
  • Miguel Román
  • Sergio Carreira
  • Álvaro Núñez
  • Hugo González
  • Javi Rueda
  • Hugo Álvarez
  • Damián Rodríguez
  • Óscar Marcos
  • Andrés Antañón
  • Hugo Burcio
Forwards
  • Iago AspasC
  • Ferran Jutglà
  • Borja Iglesias
  • Williot Swedberg
  • Couhaib Driouech
  • Pablo Durán
  • Carles Pérez
  • Jones El Abdellaoui
This team's current captain could not be confirmed with certainty at the last check — no armband is shown above until the information is reliable.
Squad last verified on 31 Aug 2026 — source: Base list: fichajes.com (Celta de Vigo 2026/27 squad), cross-checked against the line-ups published by El Desmarque (30/08/2026), LaLiga's official transfers page (laliga.com/clubs/rc-celta/transfers) and BeSoccer. Unai Núñez was removed (loaned to RCD Espanyol) and Couhaib Driouech added. Matías Vecino, still listed by fichajes.com and by Betfair (05/08/2026) but reported as departing by FútbolFantasy, was not retained for lack of cross-checking..

What has been said recently

Chronological feed of verified information about the club.

rss18 Oct 2026
The Celta seeks oxygen and the Alavés break their bad streak
Source: Mundo Deportivo
rss16 Oct 2026
Moved in the Celtic-Juventus: "If you have something to say..."
Source: Mundo Deportivo
rss15 Oct 2026
This is how the classification of Europe League remains after Day 2: problems for Real Society and Celta
Source: Mundo Deportivo
rss15 Oct 2026
The Juventus kills' the Celtic in a cruel last minute
Source: Mundo Deportivo
rss15 Oct 2026
Vigo Celta 1 - 2 Juventus: result, summary and goals - 124; Europa League
Source: Mundo Deportivo
rss15 Oct 2026
Celta - Juventus: the best pictures of the game
Source: Mundo Deportivo
Institutional3 Sep 2026
On 3 September 2026 Vigo's local governing board approved the definitive administrative concession of Balaídos to Celta for fifty years, extendable to a maximum of seventy-five, for an annual fee of €802,837.93. The club takes on maintenance, repairs and security, must submit an annual maintenance plan and obtains commercial exploitation of audiovisual and naming rights; Balaídos must remain the first team's stadium on pain of compensation. Mayor Abel Caballero spoke of “a moment of historic importance for the city”.
Source: Atlántico Diario
Head coach3 Sep 2026
Claudio Giráldez's verdict on the window: “Happy, satisfied. My priority was to bring in a right-sided centre-back who could contribute immediately,” and “we were able to hold on to a lot of people who were a treat on the market”. He praises “a significant financial effort by the club” but acknowledges that “we were short of that ball-playing central midfielder”.
Source: Atlántico Diario
Transfers3 Sep 2026
Carles Pérez has terminated his contract and signed for Girona as a free agent for a season. The Catalan winger, frozen out because of his contract situation, left a farewell message with a bitter tone: “I would have liked to leave in a better way, but we know how this industry works,” while saying he preferred to hold on to “the many good and beautiful memories” of Vigo.
Source: Atlántico Diario
Injury3 Sep 2026
Two players on Celta's injury list: Borja Iglesias, with a soleus problem, whose return is put at the start of September, and Aleix Febas, with a rib contusion and announced as unavailable until matchday 6.
Source: FútbolFantasy
Result2 Sep 2026
Celta play at Anoeta on Thursday 3 September 2026 at 21:00, in a matchday 6 fixture brought forward, against Real Sociedad. Claudio Giráldez has named twenty-four players; Borja Iglesias and Aleix Febas are the only two absent through injury.
Source: RC Celta (site officiel)
Transfers1 Sep 2026
Centre-back Unai Núñez has been loaned to Espanyol with a purchase option, a departure that sharpens the shortage of players the head coach has complained about.
Source: La Grada
Head coach31 Aug 2026
Claudio Giráldez publicly called for a centre-back to be signed after the defeat to Athletic, judging the squad too thin in that position before a schedule made heavier by Europe.
Source: El Desmarque
Result31 Aug 2026
A 0-2 defeat at Balaídos against Athletic on matchday 3: Celta are in the relegation zone with a single point.
Source: El Debate
Head coach31 Aug 2026
After the 0-2 defeat against Athletic, Claudio Giráldez publicly insists on signing a right-footed central defender and a holding midfielder: “We're a bit short of numbers in those positions,” citing the run of matches every three or four days.
Source: Metropolitano
Other30 Aug 2026
Celta 0-2 Athletic Club at Balaídos (goals from Berenguer and Robert Navarro in the first half): second consecutive home defeat, four changes made as early as half-time and whistles from part of the crowd.
Source: Atlántico Diario
News last verified on 18 Oct 2026. Sources: sports press (L'Équipe, Le Parisien, Foot Mercato, regional press…) and official club websites — see the link on each item.
Editorial content (playing style, mood, absences, external prediction sources) last verified on 3 Sep 2026. The standings/form data above are refreshed automatically — as is the 1/X/2 estimate, recomputed on every view.