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The conclusion to the Spanish Segunda Division season, which dives deep into the scorching heat of June, can normally be relied upon to serve up a dramatic finale as the fine lines between success and failure are laid bare.

The 2024/25 campaign was certainly no exception with a play-off final that was always guaranteed to deliver one of the most romantic promotions we’ve seen this century, be that a return to the top flight after 24 years for Real Oviedo, or a first-ever season in LaLiga for unfancied Mirandes.

For a long while it looked like it may go the way of the club from Miranda de Ebro, a town of just 37,000 people in the province of Burgos. A side largely consisting of loanees that was expected to struggle this term, were on the brink of a historic promotion under Alessio Lisci when they took the lead after just 16 minutes at the Carlos Tartiere on Saturday, to go 2-0 up on aggregate.

They had opportunities to add to their tally too, but this would slowly turn into Oviedo’s fairytale and not theirs, with 40-year-old Santi Cazorla’s penalty just before the interval sparking a fine comeback from the Asturians who sealed promotion in extra time with a 3-1 win on the night.

Within 48 hours, Lisci has already left the club and is set to take charge of Osasuna, and Mirandes must quickly get around to the task of appointing his successor and reconstructing a squad that will be bare thin in a couple of weeks.

As for Oviedo and their fans, they may still only be just digesting what has happened. A club that sunk into the abyss of the Spanish fourth tier and the brink of extinction in the 2000s, will take their place in LaLiga again when August comes around, something an entire generation of their supporters has never witnessed.

The newly-promoted clubs in LaLiga 2025/26

Levante

• Position: 1st
• Points: 79
• Scored: 69
• Conceded: 42
• Coach: Julian Calero

As stories of play-off heartbreak go, little compares to the plight suffered by Levante in 2023 when they were denied promotion by a 129th-minute penalty from Asier Villalibre of Alaves in the second leg of a final that had not until that point produced a single goal.

The Valencians would have been promoted as the higher-ranked side had that tie finished goalless. They could only manage an eighth place finish the following season, but the Granotes bounced back in style in 2024/25, with the summer appointment of Julian Calero sparking a revival in their fortunes.

Calero will likely be a new name to anyone who doesn’t pay much attention to the Spanish lower leagues. At 54, the Madrid-born coach will get his opportunity at the highest level having worked his way up the leagues the old-fashioned way to a large extent.

He had 14 different stints as either a player or coach at various clubs in the Comunidad de Madrid, before branching out to take charge of third-tier Burgos in 2020. It was during a successful three-year spell at El Plantio that he really forged his reputation as somebody who could potentially step up and lead one of the bigger second-tier clubs, and after a year in Cartagena, he has completed his steady rise to the big time by clinching promotion with Levante.

While his Burgos sides were typically defensively-minded, Calero oversaw a more expansive Levante outfit that finished as the second-highest scorers in the Segunda Division behind only an Almeria side that could count on the considerable talents of 27-goal Luis Suarez, comfortably the league’s most dangerous frontman.

They won more points on the road than any other team, and their use of 28 players throughout the campaign was the third-lowest in the league behind only play-off runners-up Mirandes and Sporting.

In a league that invariably goes to the wire at the top, Levante held their nerve better than their rivals by winning 11 of their final 15 fixtures to clinch promotion back to the top flight after three years in the Segunda Division.

Like any team that comes up, they’ll need reinforcements in the summer transfer window, and we may see Calero revert to type to some extent with a more defensive approach to life at the highest level. Even this season, his side’s average possession stats stood at only 49.1% suggesting they’ll be happy to let their opponents have much of the ball next term, and they’ll be hoping club legend Jose Luis Morales has enough gas left in the tank to still make an impact on the break.

Elche

• Position: 2nd
• Points: 77
• Scored: 59
• Conceded: 34
• Coach: Eder Sarabia

Elche’s approach to both this season and their bid to avoid the drop in LaLiga 2025/26 is likely to be very different to that of Levante. Under the guidance of Eder Sarabia, the former assistant to Quique Setien at Betis and Barcelona, they are very much a possession-based side with Los Franjiverdes enjoying a league-high 61.5% share of the ball this term.

Sarabia has enjoyed a pretty spectacular redemption story this season, bouncing back from the sack at Andorra in March of last year when they were bottom of the Segunda Division.

That wasn’t enough to put Elche off appointing Sarabia on an initial one-year deal last summer, and the 44-year-old has more than repaid the faith that the club showed in him by delivering automatic promotion at the first attempt.

It did take some time for Sarabia to work his magic however. Elche lost three of their opening four games which was hardly the ideal start for a man who came with something of a point to prove in the first place, but gradually his squad bought into his approach, and the Estadio Manuel Martinez Valero soon turned into one of the toughest grounds for visiting teams in the Spanish second tier.

With a 71% home win ratio and the division’s best defensive record, Elche looked like strong automatic promotion contenders from the midway point on, and despite suffering back-to-back defeats on matchdays 39 and 40, they recovered to win their final two games, sealing promotion in style with a 4-0 win away to Deportivo La Coruña on the final weekend.

Sarabia has since signed a fresh two-year deal, and they’ll be hoping that a clear playing style and identity can be the recipe for success when they retake their place on the LaLiga map for the 2025/26 season.

Real Oviedo

• Position: 3rd (play-off winners)
• Points: 75
• Scored: 56
• Conceded: 42
• Coach: Veljko Paunovic

After a close brush with promotion in 2023/24 when they were defeated by Espanyol in the play-off final, Real Oviedo supporters had perhaps even more reason to be optimistic heading into this campaign than fans of Levante and Elche who had failed to reach the top six.

The Asturians have been there or thereabouts in the right half of the Segunda Division for most of the last decade, but backed by the second-highest home crowds in the league (23,318 on average during the 2024/25 season), there was a growing sense that they were getting closer to securing that long-awaited return to the top flight.

Luis Carrion had taken them closer than any other Oviedo boss since their relegation from LaLiga in 2001, but his departure to take charge of top-flight Las Palmas created a vacancy last summer that was filled by Javi Calleja.

The 47-year-old’s reign was far from a disaster, but the club’s hierarchy opted to make a change in March after a run of just one point from four games left them in danger of dropping out of the top six.

Step forward Veljko Paunovic, a former Atletico Madrid player, and the ex-coach of Chicago Fire and Reading, as well as two clubs in Mexico, to rise to the challenge of getting Oviedo’s promotion push back on track.

The Serbian boss made an instant impact, winning his opening game against Malaga and leading his new team on a 10-game unbeaten run to close out the regular season. It would have been enough for automatic promotion had results gone their way elsewhere on the final matchday, but such form ensured Los Azules had a spring in their step heading into the play-offs.

Faced with a strong Almeria side featuring a number of players who are clearly capable of operating at a higher level, Oviedo got their campaign off to a perfect start with full-back Nacho Vidal the unlikely two-goal hero in a 2-1 win in Andalusia.

A Cazorla free-kick nearly lifted the roof off the Carlos Tartiere in the second leg, as Oviedo squeezed through with a 1-1 draw, and despite losing the first leg against Mirandes in the final, Paunovic’s side ultimately had enough to seal the deal back on a magical night in Asturias.

Cazorla’s miraculous story has inevitably captured the imagination of the Spanish and international media over the past 48 hours. The former Arsenal and Villarreal man is now a promotion winner with his boyhood club at the age of 40, more than 20 years after his initial departure from the then cash-strapped club that was on the brink of financial ruin, and nearly 10 years on from the start of the horrendous injury problems that threatened to end his career.

Few would begrudge Cazorla or Oviedo their day in the sun, and their presence will surely light up LaLiga next season. Known throughout Spain (a country where relatively few fans tend to travel to away games) for their strong visiting support, Oviedistas will travel in good numbers wherever they go next term having finally completed the long road back to the promised land, having endured some very dark times along the way.