Eight years on, Deportivo are back in La Liga — facing their nemesis

Eight years after being relegated, Deportivo La Coruña return to La Liga tonight at Riazor — against Elche, the very team that thrashed them 4-0 just over a year ago and celebrated promotion on Depor's own turf.

Riazor lights up for a Primera División fixture tonight for the first time in eight years — and, fittingly, the opponent is the last team anyone in A Coruña wants to see. Deportivo La Coruña, the club that once won a Spanish league title and humiliated the reigning European champions, are back in the top flight after nearly a decade in exile. Their first game back, kicking off at 9pm local time, is against Elche — the same side that thrashed them 4-0 at Riazor in June 2025, celebrating their own promotion to La Liga on Deportivo's own pitch while the home side were still stuck fighting to get out of the second tier. Thirteen months on, the roles have flipped.

Eight years, three divisions, one long road back

The fall was brutal. On 30 April 2018, Deportivo lost 2-4 to Barcelona at Riazor and were relegated to the Segunda División. What looked like a temporary setback turned into an eight-year slog through Spanish football's lower tiers — including a further drop into the third division in 2020, a level of collapse few clubs with this much history ever experience.

• 30 April 2018: relegated to the second tier after a 2-4 home defeat to Barcelona.
• June 2019: lose the promotion play-off final to Mallorca.
• 2020: drop into the third tier (Primera RFEF, then Segunda B) after 39 straight years as a professional club.
• 2022 and 2023: two more play-off heartbreaks, against Albacete and Castellón.
• 12 May 2024: a Lucas Pérez free kick seals promotion back to the Segunda División against Barcelona B, in front of more than 31,000 fans at Riazor.
• 24 May 2026: a Bil Nsongo brace secures a 0-2 win away at Real Valladolid — and, finally, promotion to La Liga.

Few promotions carry this much emotional weight. Deportivo aren't some plucky newcomer — they won La Liga in 1999-2000, beat Real Madrid to lift the Copa del Rey at the Bernabéu, and produced one of the great Champions League nights in April 2004: the 'Miracle of Riazor', a 4-0 demolition of Paolo Maldini and Andriy Shevchenko's Milan that overturned a 4-1 first-leg deficit in the quarter-finals, before losing in the semi-finals to José Mourinho's eventual champions, Porto.

Tonight, against the worst possible reminder

The fixture list has an odd sense of humour. Deportivo's return to the top flight comes against the exact team that rubbed their face in the second tier just over a year ago. On 1 June 2025, Elche travelled to Riazor and won 4-0, wrapping the game up inside half an hour and celebrating their own promotion to La Liga right there on Deportivo's own turf. Back then, Depor were still fighting to escape the Segunda; Elche left A Coruña as a top-flight club. Thirteen months later, at 9pm tonight, it's Deportivo hosting at Riazor as a Primera División side, facing the same opponent, in the opening match of their 2026-27 campaign.

Aubameyang leads an almost €20m rebuild

Deportivo haven't waited for kick-off to strengthen the squad. The headline arrival is Gabonese striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang — a former Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal, Barcelona and Chelsea forward — who signed officially on 17 July from Olympique de Marseille for €1.5m on a deal running to June 2028. At 37, he brings a level of European pedigree the dressing room hasn't seen in years, joining new faces Jonathan Asp Jensen, Lorenzo Amatucci, Bright Ede, Leo Román and Dutch midfielder Teun Gijselhart. In total, the club has spent close to €20m on transfers this summer — the fifth-highest outlay by any promoted side so far this century.

But the real symbol of Riazor is homegrown: Yeremay Hernández, the academy graduate now dubbed the 'jewel of Riazor', steps into his first top-flight season carrying much of the attacking responsibility alongside David Mella, Luismi Cruz and Aubameyang himself. Antonio Hidalgo remains in charge — the coach who has now delivered back-to-back promotions — and more than 29,000 season-ticket holders have renewed their commitment to a Riazor that has waited eight years for this.

Deportivo aren't the only club making a comeback this season — Racing Santander and Málaga are also back in the top flight this matchday, in one of the busiest summers of movement between Spain's top two divisions in recent memory.

Nights like this are exactly what makes following La Liga through a quiniela fun — a promoted side debuting at home, an opponent with a score to settle, and a result nobody wants to call. If you fancy following Deportivo's return to the top flight with a bit more on the line, you can set up a prediction league with friends on quiniPrats and compare picks matchday by matchday.