Las Palmas, Spain — For more than 80 minutes at Estadio de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas and Cádiz found themselves locked in a careful, sometimes tense deadlock on Sunday evening, each side’s ambition blunted by discipline and defensive organization. It took a single late moment of incisiveness — a flick of the head and a measured cross — for the home side to seize all three points, Sergio Barcia’s 85th-minute goal breaking the resistance and delivering a narrow 1-0 victory for Luis García Fernández’s team.

The contest, played as the late sun faded over the Canary Islands, never lacked in intensity. Yet for long stretches, rhythm was hard to find. Both teams, entrenched in the tactical caution typical of these early autumn fixtures, worked diligently to deny space and probe for flaws in the other’s approach.

Las Palmas, fielding a 4-3-3 formation, found some early promise on the flanks. Marvin Park’s ventures from right back created a handful of half-chances, though Cádiz, under the stewardship of Gaizka Garitano Aguirre and deployed in a compact 4-4-2, regularly smothered attacks before they could develop. The first half was marked by a series of professional fouls and interruptions; Cádiz’s Iza Carcelén went into the referee’s book after a forceful challenge in the 32nd minute, evidence of Cádiz’s determination to contain the home side’s fluid build-up.

Opportunities were few before halftime, with Las Palmas’s patient possession rarely yielding a clear opening against a disciplined Cádiz defensive line anchored by Bojan Kovačević and Iker Recio. In the opposite penalty area, Dinko Horkaš, Las Palmas’s young goalkeeper, was rarely called into urgent action, marshaling his defense through the occasional flurry.

The second half began with more urgency. Cádiz’s Mario Climent received a yellow card three minutes in, setting the tone for a fractious period. Garitano Aguirre’s side began to assert themselves in midfield, with Moussa Diakité and Sergio Ortuño working to disrupt the home side’s tempo. Yet it was Las Palmas’s substitutions — notably the introduction of the veteran creative influence J. Viera — that would ultimately tip the balance.

As legs tired and spaces began to open, Las Palmas pressed forward. Viti Rozada and Ale García, energetic in attack, forced a series of corners. The breakthrough arrived in the 85th minute. Viera, showing the composure that has defined his lengthy career, drifted wide and delivered a deft, curling cross into the Cádiz box. Sergio Barcia, rising above his marker at the near post, flicked his header with precision, sending the ball past Victor Wehbi Aznar before wheeling away to celebrate in front of the home supporters.

Barcia’s goal was both a reward for Las Palmas’s late ambition and a hammer blow to Cádiz, who had defended resolutely for so long. The closing minutes saw further substitutions from both managers as Cádiz searched for a response. Ortuño’s booking in stoppage time typified the frustration and urgency with which the visitors chased a late equalizer, but Las Palmas held firm to preserve their slender lead.

The victory, secured more by perseverance than poetry, has significance beyond the scoreline. Las Palmas, with this result, consolidates its position in the upper half of the Segunda División table, suggesting that Fernández’s pragmatic approach may have his team poised for a season of genuine promise. For Cádiz, the defeat reinforces the thin margins in this fiercely competitive league, their defensive structure undermined by a single lapse in the game’s dying moments.

“The players showed great character,” Fernández said afterward, crediting his side’s discipline and their willingness to seize their opportunity when it arrived. Garitano Aguirre expressed disappointment but emphasized Cádiz’s organization and vowed to seek improvement in the weeks ahead.

As the crowd filtered out beneath the lights, the match was unlikely to linger in memory as a classic. Yet on a night when resolve trumped inspiration, Las Palmas found just enough of the former — and just enough of the latter, in Viera’s measured delivery and Barcia’s decisive finish — to claim a vital victory.