Leeds United kick off their winter friendly calendar with a trip to Elche. The Whites will travel to Spain to face the Spanish side on Thursday 8 December, with the match set to get underway at 7.15pm GMT at the Estadio Manuel Martinez Valero.
Leeds are then set to host Europa League outfits Real Sociedad and AS Monaco in the run up until Christmas ahead of their return to Premier League action against Manchester City. The latter two will certainly provide Jesse Marsch's men with a step up in quality from their opening friendly, with Elche certainly a much lesser known quantity.
So, with that in mind, here is a look at everything you need to know on Leeds' first friendly opponents.
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Season so far
Elche are currently the worst performing side in all of Europe's top five leagues so far this season. They are yet to win any of their opening 14 matches, accumulating just four points.
Pablo Machin's side comfortably possess the worst defence in La Liga with 31 goals already conceded, while also scoring just 10 at the other end. Machin is currently Elche's third permanent manager of the season already with Fransciso Rodriguez and Jorge Almiron both also spending time in the dugout.
Any key players?
Left winger Pere Milla is currently the club's top scorer in La Liga this season, though that is not saying much as he found the net just three times. Federico Fernandez, Domingos Quina and Javier Pastore are likely to be the most well known players to Leeds fans given their previous exploits, while Alex Collado is an interesting talent on loan from Barcelona.
Recent history
It has certainly been an interesting decade on and off the pitch for Elche, earning automatic promotion to Liga for the first time in 24 years back in 2013. They managed to stay in the division for the following two seasons, though at the end of the 2014/15 season Elche were handed an automatic relegation to the Segunda Division due to economic mismanagement, becoming the first team ever in the history of La Liga to do so.
Just two years later they were then relegated to the third tier after 18 years in professional league, but thankfully were able to bounce back at the first attempt. In 2019/20 they completed a full circle and were promoted back to La Liga, where they have remained since.
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