Santi Cazorla scores in playoff as Real Oviedo end 24-year wait for La Liga return

Real Oviedo sealed their return to La Liga after 24 years with a 3-2 aggregate victory over Mirandés – and 40-year-old Santi Cazorla was among the scorers.

Oviedo triumphed 3-1 at home in Saturday’s promotion playoff, overturning a first-leg deficit with goals from Cazorla, Ilyas Chaira and Francisco Portillo. A packed Estadio Carlos Tartiere erupted as fans stormed on to the pitch at the final whistle.

Cazorla started his career in Oviedo’s youth team, joining at the age of eight and watching his heroes: Carlos Muñoz, Slavisa Jokanovic, Robert Prosinecki and Petr Dubovsky. A decade later he had to leave against his will amid a financial crisis at the club. He went on to star with Villarreal, Arsenal and Spain but returned to his boyhood club two years ago, saying: “I would play for free but you’re not allowed.”

He scored the decisive goal in the playoff semi-final against Almería from a free-kick and has now completed the fairytale by firing his boyhood club back into the top flight. Cazorla scored from the penalty spot in the first half of the second leg after Joaquín Panichelli’s goal had given Mirandés a two-goal lead in the tie. Chair’s second-half strike took the tie to extra time and two minutes before the break in the extra half an hour, Portillo hit the winner to send the home fans wild.

The club from Asturias, in the north-west of Spain, will join Levante and Elche in La Liga next season, replacing relegated Leganés, Las Palmas and Valladolid.

Oviedo’s coach, Veljko Paunovic, told La Liga TV: “There’s no way to describe what this means to us. These players are heroes, every single one of them. They deserve great recognition.”

Red cards for Oviedo’s David Costas and Unai Egiluz of Mirandés at the end of extra time did not sour a historic occasion for a team that almost went out of business when they plummeted to Spain’s fourth tier at the start of the century.