Cádiz got a necessary victory against Celta in Balaídos yesterday by 1-2. The cadistas reaped the first victory of the season. In eleven there were changes, and one of them was the Álvaro Bastida's first title with Cádiz, becoming the youngest player in Cádiz to do so. The 17-year-old footballer had already debuted in yellow last season, but this time he was one of the eleven chosen by Álvaro Cervera to start the match against Celta.
Álvaro Bastida was already Cádiz's youngest debutant since last season when he played his first minutes with the yellow jersey at Ciudad de Valencia against Levante, but now he is also the youngest to start as a starter in the First Division. That match against Levante in which Bastida knew what it was like to debut with the elastic cadista did not have the same significance as yesterday's match against Celta. The last game of the season was played at Ciudad de Valencia with the goal of permanence already achieved. Yesterday, the responsibility grew.
And it is that Cádiz did not yet know the victory this season. It was vital for the yellow team to get the three points before receiving Barça at home to get a little air in the qualifying table and, also, some confidence to continue a competition in which the results have not been accompanied at the start. In the midst of that responsibility, Álvaro Cervera, who has always defended that the youth players must be supported, but not giving them a lot of pressure, he dared to take Álvaro Bastida out as a starter in the center of the field.
The one from Chiclana more than responded to his mandate. Perhaps the nerves of the one who knows that he is doing something important and that may be key to his future as a footballer showed, but he emptied himself on the field and that is something that the Cádiz coach values in his men. Álvaro Bastida is part of the first team despite his youth and having a subsidiary file and little by little he is earning his place in the team with his daily work.
Yesterday Álvaro Bastida, aged 17, left teammates like Jens Jonsson, Álex Fernández or Martín Calderón on the bench. The Chiclanero was accompanied in the center of the field by Tomás Alarcón, who returned to the title.
Young Bastida has a lot of future ahead of him. He has already been called up by the Spanish U18 team for the international tournament 'Lafarge Foot Avenir' in Limoges, of which he was also champion.