LaLiga Hypermotion Matchday 5 preview: Eibar leading the way, Sabadell remain unbeaten and Real Sporting de Gijón host Eldense

Alright lads, matchday five and this league is already showing its true colours. Summary in two lines: Eibar are top after losing their opener, newly promoted Sabadell are second and haven't tasted defeat yet, there are nine teams crammed into two points and down below there are already two sides with absolutely nothing after four games. Eleven matches from Friday to Monday. You've got my pre-match breakdown of Sporting-Eldense in video below, and then we'll go day by day.

📊 How Hypermotion arrives at matchday 5

This is the real standings, and it updates itself: as soon as each weekend match finishes, the table below moves without you having to refresh anything.

🗓️ Friday: Ceuta fighting for more than it seems

Burgos CF — AD Ceuta FC · 20:30, El Plantío

The matchday opens with the most comfortable side in the table against the one having the roughest time. Burgos have 5 points from a win and two draws, that kind of start that leaves you neither happy nor sad, and they're getting almost their full squad back except Lizancos (meniscus) and Oier Luengo (fractured toe).

Facing them, Ceuta with the scary stat: four defeats, zero points, 1 goal for and 12 against. This isn't bad luck, it's a bloodbath. And they arrive at El Plantío with six absences — Anuar, Lapeña, Koné, Teguia and Mamah injured, plus Albert Caparrós suspended for a straight red. It's life that a newly promoted side struggles in the second tier; conceding three per game on average in September is a different conversation altogether. If they don't pick up points tonight, the noise around the dugout is going to be deafening.

🗓️ Saturday: five matches and Albacete's pride on the line

FC Andorra — Real Sociedad B · 14:00

Andorra are the most entertaining and most suicidal team in the league: 7 goals for and 7 against in four matches, with Le Normand (cruciate, out until February) and Gael Alonso broken for months. Won their first then three straight losses after. The Real Sociedad B youth side arrive with 5 points from 9 possible and a game in hand, unbeaten and not making a fuss, with the long-term absence of Ekain Orobengoa. A Sunday lunchtime appetiser, but it looks like goals galore.

Cádiz — UD Las Palmas · 16:15

A cracker by name and by urgency. Cádiz are the draw kings: three draws and a defeat, still without a win, with Tabatadze, Gocholeishvili and Obioma in the treatment room. And Las Palmas arrive tenth with 7 points… and with eight absences, which is becoming routine: Recoba, Cedeño, Sergio Ruiz, Álex Suárez, Ale García, Marvin Park, Viti and Opoku stay on the island. Two squads built for promotion, two starts like these that by mid-October cost you your job.

Girona — CD Castellón · 18:30

The most starkly contrasting matchup of the weekend: attack versus defence. Girona are the division's top scorers with 9 goals; Castellón, who concede the least — 1 goal against in three matches — and have a game in hand that, if they win it, puts them level on points at the top. Girona still without Portu (cruciate) and with Jastin García under wraps; Castellón without Brignani or Kostis. Montilivi is going to be a good barometer for whether those 9 goals are a real team or a mirage.

Granada — Albacete · 18:30

This isn't about football anymore, it's about survival. Albacete are on zero: four matches, four defeats, 2 goals for and 7 against, and to make matters worse they have the busiest treatment room in LaLiga Hypermotion with seven names (Samu Obeng and Antonio Puertas with broken cruciates, Pepe Sánchez and San Bartolomé with hamstring issues, plus concerns over Munir, Rober González and Víctor Valverde). Granada, ninth with 7 points, come off a loss and get players back. Los Cármenes could be where Albacete falls apart completely… or where they finally start to exist.

Córdoba — Almería · 21:00

Andalusian derby at night at El Arcángel, which is always a recipe for a good time. Córdoba sit 19th with 3 points and are among the most leaky defensively (10 against) with five significant absences — Adilson, Fomeyem, El Jebari, Jacobo Martí and Víctor Sánchez. Almería, twelfth, alternate wins and losses without middle ground (WLWL) and get Thalys back after serving his four-match ban, although Gui Guedes remains absent. And yes: Almería is the team that Cristiano Ronaldo owns 25% of since February. Second Division in 2026, folks.

🔴⚪ Sunday: El Molinón, Zorrilla and Sabadell's unbeaten run

Real Sporting de Gijón — CD Eldense · 14:00, El Molinón

And now the awkward bit, that's what we're here for. Sporting are the strangest team on the whole table: 7 points, eleventh, with 2 goals for and 2 against in four matches. Two. Play-off-calibre defence and relegation-zone attack — only Oviedo (1) have scored fewer. With Larcamón's boys you know they won't rough you up, but you also know that any misty afternoon ends in a 0-0 that gets nobody excited.

They arrive off a home loss to Girona (0-2) and with three absences: Andrés Ferrari (recurring fibula fracture, long-term), Gaspar Campos (hamstring relapse, again) and Hugo Guillamón, who remains sidelined and hasn't got his season going. Facing them, an Eldense in second-to-last with 2 points that haven't won yet (2 goals for, 6 against) and they're without Pau Cabanes back in Elda.

On paper, three points. But look at the table again: Sporting are eleventh and a win puts them right in the thick of the fight above, because from 4th to 11th there's zero points between them. A Sunday at two o'clock at El Molinón, with the team needing to win and half of Spain watching because of the Messi stuff. We have to win and we have to win scoring goals. COME ON SPORTING. 🔴⚪

Real Valladolid — Real Oviedo · 16:15, Zorrilla

Two relegated First Division sides, sixteenth versus fifteenth, and a brilliant atmosphere guaranteed at Zorrilla. Oviedo join the club of teams that are impossible to work out: 1 goal for and 1 against in four matchdays. They neither win nor lose nor score nor concede. They simply exist.

And they arrive in Valladolid with the shortest injury list of the weekend: seven players out through injury (Chaira, Brandon Domingues, Chris Ramos, Carlos Fernández, David Costas and Nacho Vidal, plus the doubt over Aisar Ahmed) and Aritz Aldasoro suspended for a straight red. Pucela aren't in great shape either — 4 points, 2 goals for and the medical room with six names, including Guille Bueno with a cruciate ligament injury and Dani Pérez out for six or seven weeks, plus Lachuer suspended. The type of match that gets decided by a set piece and someone else's bad luck.

RCD Mallorca — CE Sabadell FC · 18:30

My favourite match of the matchday, and that's even with Sporting not playing. Sabadell, freshly promoted, are second with 8 points and still nobody's beaten them: two wins and two draws, 4 goals for and only 2 against. A team that started the league without scoring and who are suddenly heading to Son Moix to go toe-to-toe with Mallorca, sixth, another side that's only conceded 2. Sabadell are without Genar Fornés and Bonaldo; Mallorca have Jan Salas and Kalumba out long-term and Abdón Prats a doubt. The team with the tightest budget in the division, fighting to stay up in a First Division stadium.

CD Tenerife — CD Leganés · 21:00, Heliodoro

A cracking way to close out Sunday. Tenerife, eighth with 7 points in their return to professional football, host Leganés, third, unbeaten, with 8 points and only 1 goal conceded in the entire league — the most reliable team in the opening stretch alongside Sabadell. Leganés arrive with four absentees (Franquesa, Del Cura, Diawara and Tejero) and Tenerife only miss Jesús Álvarez. Heliodoro at night, with the home side on a run and a promotion candidate across from them: one of those you can really fancy.

🗓️ Monday: the leaders seal the deal at Balaídos

RC Celta Fortuna — SD Eibar · 20:30, Balaídos

The finale belongs to the leaders. Eibar lost on the opening matchday and have won three in a row ever since: 9 points, top spot, and one of those runs that changes your entire season in the second tier. But they head to Balaídos battered: Jair suspended for a straight red, García de Albéniz with an ankle problem, and Nolaskoain and Olaetxea long-term injuries, plus the doubt over Sergio Álvarez. Five players out.

And Celta Fortuna are the reserve team nobody saw coming: fifth with 7 points, 7 goals for and without a single confirmed absence — the only one of the 22 teams arriving with a full squad. Monday night, Balaídos, a cheeky reserve side against a wounded league leader. Keep your eyes peeled.

🧮 The bottom line for matchday 5

If you only take five things away, let them be these:

• Eibar are the leaders with 9 points, and they're the only team that's won three matches.
• Nobody's beaten Sabadell or Leganés yet. Both unbeaten, both with 8 points, both with the tightest defence in the league.
• From 4th to 15th there are just two points between them. Twelve teams separated by one result. What happens this weekend shakes up the whole table.
• Albacete and Ceuta are still on zero with four defeats each, and on top of that they're the two teams with the most absentees this matchday (seven and six).
• Sporting and Oviedo are the two teams scoring the fewest goals in the entire division — 2 and 1 goals in four matches — and neither has conceded more than two. Asturias are playing chess football and I'm not sure I like it.

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