Zaragoza's Festive Fixtures from Hell: Three Playoff Teams Await Rock-Bottom Side
Real Zaragoza face a brutal run against promotion contenders Burgos, Las Palmas and Racing as they desperately try to escape the Segunda División basement.
Nightmare Before (and After) Christmas for Struggling Zaragoza
If you thought your Christmas schedule was looking busy, spare a thought for Real Zaragoza. The Segunda División’s bottom club faces an absolute horror show of fixtures to close out the first half of the season, with three consecutive matches against promotion-chasing sides.
Rock Bottom and Running Out of Time
The situation is dire for Rubén Sellés’ men, who currently:
- Sit dead last in the table on just 16 points
- Trail the safety zone by 4 points
- Need approximately 50 points to survive (based on typical Segunda survival thresholds)
To avoid needing a promotion-worthy second half of the campaign, Zaragoza desperately need to bank around 4 points from these three brutal fixtures. That would put them on 20 points at the halfway mark, requiring roughly 30 more in the back half - still difficult, but not impossible.
Fail to win any of these three, and they’ll need to produce the sort of form in the second half that gets teams promoted, not just safe. It’s squeaky bum time in Aragon, no two ways about it.
The Festive Gauntlet
The upcoming schedule is enough to give Zaragoza supporters nightmares:
Burgos (away) - Currently 6th in the table, though they’ve been somewhat vulnerable at El Plantío with just three home wins from nine. Zaragoza’s first glimmer of hope.
Las Palmas (home) - The Canary Islanders sit 5th and have been road warriors, losing just once away from home all season. A proper Bobby Dazzler of a challenge to kick off 2026.
Racing Santander (away) - The league leaders await in Cantabria, where they’ve been absolutely mustard at home. Fresh off knocking Villarreal out of the Copa, they’re the form team in the division.
The Bottom Line
These three matches will define Zaragoza’s season and reveal exactly how steep a mountain they’ll need to climb in the second half. For a club of their size and history, relegation to the third tier would be unthinkable, but that’s the reality they’re facing without a dramatic turnaround.
As things stand, they’re in serious danger of spending next Christmas in Primera RFEF unless Sellés can conjure some festive magic from his struggling squad.