Who are Arandina CF? Club history, league of Real Madrid Copa del Rey opponents

Real Madrid start their 2023/24 Copa del Rey campaign against lower-division opposition again when they visit Arandina in the Round of 32 on Saturday, January 6.

The La Liga giants will be targeting a more straightforward opening match than they had on their way to winning the competition last season.

On that occasion, Madrid needed a 69th-minute Rodrygo winner to knock out Cacereno, a fourth-tier team from western Spain.

The Sporting News takes a look at the story of Arandina as the club prepares for the most high-profile match in its history.

Based in the city of Aranda de Duero in the east of the country, Arandina play in the Segunda Federacion, which is also known as Segunda B and is the fourth tier of the Spanish football pyramid.

They were promoted as champions of Group 8 of the fifth tier in 2022/23 and currently play in Group 1 of their new tier, in which teams are required to have a minimum of 10 players under full-time contracts.

As the names suggest, the Primera Federacion is the tier immediately above Segunda Federacion, with the Segunda Division (or La Liga 2) the next division up before La Liga itself, which Madrid have won 35 times.

After winning 19 and drawing 11 of their 30 league games last season, Arandina have found life tougher a step up. Before playing Madrid, they were bottom of the table by a point after 16 matches with a record of two wins, four draws and 10 defeats.

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"We started well and then the results did not come," club captain Carlos Alonso told AS this week. "You have the pressure to get away from the bottom.

"The cup is, as I tell my teammates, a game that you have to enjoy. You play more relaxed against a superior team that has more to lose than you."

Based in the Ribera