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Without Saúl, Folch, and André, Oviedo suffered their first major defeat of the season.
The thirteenth round of the league took them away to Deportivo La Coruña, and the result was brutal: 4-0. A complete humiliation. Even Hierro's uncharacteristic decision to deploy a 5-4-1 defensive formation—the first time all season he'd abandoned his attacking principles—couldn't prevent the collapse. The team looked lost without their suspended trio, like a body missing vital organs.
André watched the match from his flat, unable to do anything but clench his fists as goal after goal went in. Four more matches. He still had four more matches left on his suspension.
It was going to be a long few weeks.
The fourteenth round of the Segunda División arrived on schedule.
Real Oviedo hosted Sporting Gijón at the Estadio Carlos Tartiere, and for ninety agonising minutes, the home fans watched their team struggle to create anything resembling a scoring chance. The final whistle brought a 0-0 draw—but the scoreline flattered Oviedo enormously.
They'd been outplayed in every department. Sporting dominated possession, dominated territory, dominated chances. The only thing that saved Oviedo was their opponents' shocking wastefulness in front of goal. Sporting hit the woodwork twice—both times with the goalkeeper beaten, both times with the net gaping.
Oviedo, meanwhile, managed just three shots across the entire ninety minutes.
Three shots. At home. Against a mid-table opponent.
The fans filed out of the Carlos Tartiere in near-silence.
The fifteenth round brought Mallorca to Oviedo, and any hopes of turning the corner were crushed within the opening half-hour. Mallorca scored twice before the break, both goals coming from set-pieces that Oviedo's disorganised defence failed to deal with.
The second half was damage limitation. The final score: 2-0 to the visitors.
One draw, two losses. Three consecutive rounds without a win.
Real Oviedo dropped from third to seventh in the standings.
In the space of three weeks, everything had changed. The optimism that had surrounded the club after their early-season form had evaporated completely. After fifteen rounds, Oviedo sat on 23 points from six wins, five draws, and four losses—a record that looked distinctly mid-table rather than promotion-challenging.
The Segunda División table had shifted dramatically during their slump. Alcorcón—the same team Oviedo had thrashed earlier in the season—now led the league with 30 points. Málaga sat second with 29, Granada third with 28, and Deportivo La Coruña fourth with 27.
Four teams had pulled clear while Oviedo had stumbled.
The only silver lining for Hierro was that Folch would return for the next match. One of his three suspended players, at least, was coming back.
The sixteenth round took Oviedo away to Las Palmas.
Folch's return steadied the midfield immediately. From the first whistle, the team looked more like themselves—more organised, more capable of stringing passes together, more confident in possession. The veteran midfielder's presence seemed to calm everyone around him, like a conductor bringing order to a chaotic orchestra.
But without Saúl and André up front, Oviedo still couldn't create enough chances. They controlled the game for long stretches, moved the ball well through midfield, but every time they approached the final third, the attack broke down. There was no one to make the killer pass, no one to find space in the box, no one to put the ball in the net.
The match ended 0-0.
Another draw. Another missed opportunity. Another two points dropped.
The seventeenth round brought Almería to the Carlos Tartiere.
For the first time in weeks, Hierro allowed himself a glimmer of hope. After this match, André and Saúl's suspensions would be over. Whatever happened today, his team would be whole again for the next fixture.
What happened was another defeat.
Almería scored first, Oviedo equalised through a scrappy goal from a corner, and then Almería scored again in the seventy-eighth minute. Final score: 2-1 to the visitors.
Real Oviedo had now dropped to tenth in the standings.
But there was good news at last. With this match concluded, the suspensions for André and Saúl were officially over. Despite the team's dismal run—dropping from third to tenth in just a few weeks—the Oviedo faithful remained understanding. As the players trudged off the pitch after the Almería loss, heads bowed, the home fans rose to their feet and gave them a standing ovation.
We know it wasn't your fault, the applause seemed to say. We know you were missing your best players. Now go and fix this.
The fifteenth of December arrived, and the Segunda División roared back to life.
This round, Real Oviedo faced one of the toughest tests of their season: Granada, currently sitting second in the table. Under new head coach Diego Martínez, Granada had been completely transformed. After seventeen rounds, they had 34 points—just one behind league leaders Málaga.
It was a remarkable turnaround. Last season, Granada had finished tenth, anonymous and unremarkable. Now they were genuine promotion favourites, riding a wave of tactical innovation and team spirit that had caught the entire division off-guard. Martínez's coaching ability was the talk of Spanish football.
To make matters worse for Oviedo, the match would be played away at Los Cármenes—one of the most intimidating atmospheres in the second tier.
The team arrived in Granada that morning and completed a light recovery session at a local training facility. By four o'clock, an hour before kick-off, both squads were on the pitch warming up, the stadium already filling with anticipation.
Granada's starting eleven reflected Martínez's preferred 4-5-1 system: Rui Silva in goal; a back four of Víctor Díaz, José Antonio Martínez, Quini, and Sánchez; a midfield five consisting of Montero and Montoro as the double pivot, Pozo and Puertas providing width on the flanks, and Vadillo operating as the creative hub; Adrián Ramos leading the line alone up front.
For Oviedo, the return of André and Saúl gave Hierro a surge of confidence he hadn't felt in weeks.
He set his team up in the familiar 4-3-3 formation that had served them so well before the suspensions. Juan Carlos in goal. The defensive line remained unchanged: Christian at left-back, Hernández and Cabrera in the centre, Martínez on the right. In midfield, Hierro made one key adjustment to counter Granada's numerical superiority—he switched from a single pivot to a double pivot, with Folch and Richard Boateng sitting in front of the defence. Muñoz played as the attacking midfielder.
And up front, the three forwards were exactly who the fans had been desperate to see: André through the middle, flanked by Saúl on the left and Bargueño on the right.
The referee's whistle pierced the air.
The match began.
From the very first minute, it was exactly as Hierro had feared.
Granada's midfield numbers overwhelmed Oviedo immediately. Playing at home, riding the energy of their supporters, the hosts came out with ferocious intensity. After a brief feeling-out period—maybe three or four minutes of cautious probing—they seized control of the match completely.
Wave after wave of attacks. Oviedo's defence scrambled, retreated, held on by fingertips.
"This is getting dangerous," Sánchez muttered from beside Hierro on the touchline, arms folded tight across his chest. "Their momentum is too strong."
Hierro nodded, but his expression remained calm. He'd been in situations like this before—worse situations, against better teams. Panic was the enemy.
"I know. But if we can weather this storm, they'll get impatient. Remember: this match is just as important for them as it is for us. Alcorcón and Deportivo are breathing down their necks, and they're only one point behind Málaga. The pressure cuts both ways."
He blew his whistle sharply, shouted instructions toward the pitch, and made a series of hand gestures that the players had drilled a hundred times in training.
The Oviedo players responded immediately. This was pre-planned—Hierro had studied Granada extensively over the past week and prepared multiple tactical adjustments for exactly this scenario.
On the opposite touchline, Diego Martínez noticed the change instantly. His eyes narrowed. Saúl and Bargueño, who had been playing as wingers, had dropped deep—so deep that calling them "wingers" no longer made any sense. They'd essentially become midfielders, tucking in alongside Folch, Boateng, and Muñoz.
Oviedo's formation had shifted from 4-3-3 to 4-5-1, mirroring Granada exactly.
The chess match had begun.
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