2021–22 Gibraltar National League
# 2021–22 Gibraltar National League

The 2021–22 Gibraltar National League season was the third season of the Gibraltar National League in Gibraltar, and the 123rd season of football on the territory overall. The league kicked off on 16 October 2021. Lincoln Red Imps were the reigning champions, winning the title on the final day of the 2020–21 season.

## Format

The structure of the league was expected to follow that of the previous two seasons. Teams played one round of games as a single league, before splitting into two groups: the Championship Group contested by the top 6 sides, and the Challenge Group between the bottom 5 sides. The winners of the Challenge Group received the GFA Challenge Trophy and a bye to the second round of the next season's Rock Cup.

## Teams

The following 11 teams competed in the 2021–22 season. Boca Gibraltar were expelled from the league in December 2020 and did not return.

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

| Team | Manager | Captain | Kit manufacturer | Club sponsor | 2020–21 |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Bruno's Magpies | Nathan Rooney | Rubén Díaz | VIVE | Rosso Corsa | 7th |
| College 1975 | Ángel Espinosa | Dani Guerrero | Joma | | 10th |
| Europa | Arteaga | Juampe | Kappa | | 2nd |
| Europa Point | Tommy Taylor | Aiman Mkerreff | Xtreme Sports China | | 11th |
| Glacis United | Michele Di Piedi | Marcos Zappacosta | Macron | | 8th |
| Lincoln Red Imps | Mick McElwee | Roy Chipolina | Givova | Mansion.com | 1st |
| Lions Gibraltar | Paco Luna | Shea Breakspear | Macron | | 6th |
| Lynx | Albert Parody | Brad Power | Givova | Grupo Casais | 5th |
| Manchester 62 | David Wilson | Scott Ballantine | Joma | CEPSA GIB | 9th |
| Mons Calpe | Leo Fuentes | Andre Dos Santos | Givova | FanPlay 365 | 4th |
| St Joseph's | Jaime Molina | Aymen Mouelhi | Legea | | 3rd |

### Managerial Changes

| Team | Outgoing manager | Manner of departure | Date of vacancy | Position in table | Incoming manager | Date of appointment |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| St Joseph's | Raúl Procopio Baizán | Mutual consent | 8 June 2021 | Pre-season | Jaime Molina | 30 June 2021 |
| Bruno's Magpies | Johnny Parrado | Mutual consent | 1 September 2021 | Pre-season | José Alba Heredia | 5 September 2021 |
| Glacis United | Javier Sánchez Alfaro | Mutual consent | 1 September 2021 | Pre-season | Michele Di Piedi | 1 September 2021 |
| Europa Point | Craig Cowell | Resigned | 11 October 2021 | Pre-season | Paco Luna | 11 October 2021 |
| Europa Point | Paco Luna | Sacked | 8 November 2021 | 11th | Sean Reyes | 26 November 2021 |
| Bruno's Magpies | José Alba Heredia | Sacked | 8 December 2021 | 6th | Nathan Rooney | 13 January 2022 |
| Lions Gibraltar | Albert Ferri | Sacked | 9 January 2022 | 11th | Adrian Parral (interim) | 9 January 2022 |
| Europa Point | Sean Reyes | Mutual consent | 31 January 2022 | 10th | Tommy Taylor | 18 February 2022 |
| Mons Calpe | César Vega | Health concerns | 4 March 2022 | 6th | Leo Fuentes | 4 March 2022 |
| Lions Gibraltar | Adrian Parral | End of interim spell | 2 March 2022 | 11th | Paco Luna | 2 March 2022 |
| Europa | Rafa Escobar | Sacked | 29 March 2022 | 2nd | Arteaga | 29 March 2022 |

## League table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Lincoln Red Imps | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 5 | +35 | 30 | Qualification for the Championship Group |
| 2 | Europa | 10 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 36 | 7 | +29 | 27 | Qualification for the Championship Group |
| 3 | St Joseph's | 10 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 25 | 9 | +16 | 22 | Qualification for the Championship Group |
| 4 | Glacis United | 10 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 26 | 14 | +12 | 19 | Qualification for the Championship Group |
| 5 | Mons Calpe | 10 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 25 | 13 | +12 | 16 | Qualification for the Championship Group |
| 6 | Bruno's Magpies | 10 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 18 | 15 | +3 | 14 | Qualification for the Championship Group |
| 7 | Manchester 62 | 10 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 11 | 21 | −10 | 13 | Qualification for the Challenge Group |
| 8 | Lynx | 10 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 15 | 25 | −10 | 10 | Qualification for the Challenge Group |
| 9 | College 1975 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 5 | 21 | −16 | 6 | Qualification for the Challenge Group |
| 10 | Europa Point | 10 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 8 | 49 | −41 | 3 | Qualification for the Challenge Group |
| 11 | Lions Gibraltar | 10 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 6 | 36 | −30 | 1 | Qualification for the Challenge Group |

* ↑ Teams play each other once (10 matches), before the league splits into two groups (the top six and the bottom five) for the last 10 respectively 8 matches.

## Results

| Home \ Away | BRU | COL | EFC | EPO | GLA | LIN | LGI | LYN | MAN | MON | SJO |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Bruno's Magpies | | | | 5–0 | 2–3 | | | 0–1 | 4–0 | | 0–0 |
| College 1975 | 0–2 | | | 2–1 | 0–2 | | | 0–2 | | | 0–3 |
| Europa | 3–1 | 2–0 | | | 2–1 | | | 4–0 | | | 4–1 |
| Europa Point | | | 0–6 | | | 1–5 | 3–2 | | 1–2 | 0–10 | |
| Glacis United | | | | 5–0 | | 2–4 | | 3–1 | 1–1 | 1–0 | |
| Lincoln Red Imps | 5–0 | 4–0 | 3–1 | | | | 1–0 | | | 3–0 | |
| Lions Gibraltar | 2–3 | 0–3 | 0–9 | | 0–7 | | | | | | 1–2 |
| Lynx | | | | 6–2 | | 1–7 | 0–0 | | 1–2 | 2–3 | |
| Manchester 62 | | 2–0 | 0–2 | | | 0–7 | 3–0 | | | 0–2 | |
| Mons Calpe | 1–1 | 3–0 | 1–3 | | | | 5–1 | | | | 0–2 |
| St Joseph's | | | | 6–0 | 4–1 | 0–1 | | 4–1 | 3–1 | | |

* ↑ Lions Gibraltar vs College 1975 initially finished 1–0, however the result was overturned and awarded 0–3 to College 1975 after Lions violated substitution rules.

## Championship and Challenge groups

### Championship Group

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Lincoln Red Imps (C) | 20 | 19 | 1 | 0 | 65 | 17 | +48 | 58 | Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round |
| 2 | Europa | 20 | 15 | 2 | 3 | 57 | 21 | +36 | 47 | Qualification for the Europa Conference League first qualifying round |
| 3 | St Joseph's | 20 | 11 | 2 | 7 | 45 | 27 | +18 | 35 | Qualification for the Europa Conference League first qualifying round |
| 4 | Bruno's Magpies | 20 | 10 | 3 | 7 | 36 | 25 | +11 | 33 | Qualification for the Europa Conference League first qualifying round |
| 5 | Glacis United | 20 | 7 | 1 | 12 | 32 | 36 | −4 | 22 | |
| 6 | Mons Calpe | 20 | 6 | 2 | 12 | 34 | 36 | −2 | 20 | |

* ↑ Mons Calpe will be banned for 1 season from all UEFA club competitions for the 2022–23 season by the UEFA Club Financial Control Body on 11 March 2022 due to breaches of the UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations.

### Championship Group results

| Home \ Away | BRU | EFC | GLA | LIN | MON | SJO |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Bruno's Magpies | | 1–1 | 3–0 | 2–4 | 1–0 | 1–0 |
| Europa | 3–1 | | 1–0 | 0–2 | 3–2 | 2–3 |
| Glacis United | 0–3 | 1–2 | | 1–3 | 1–0 | 2–5 |
| Lincoln Red Imps | 1–0 | 3–3 | 1–0 | | 4–2 | 3–2 |
| Mons Calpe | 0–3 | 0–4 | 2–0 | 1–2 | | 1–4 |
| St Joseph's | 1–3 | 1–2 | 2–1 | 1–2 | 1–1 | |

### Challenge Group

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Manchester 62 | 18 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 25 | 28 | −3 | 26 | GFA Challenge Trophy and bye in 2022–23 Rock Cup |
| 2 | College 1975 | 18 | 6 | 2 | 10 | 17 | 28 | −11 | 20 | |
| 3 | Lynx | 18 | 6 | 1 | 11 | 25 | 38 | −13 | 19 | |
| 4 | Europa Point | 18 | 4 | 2 | 12 | 17 | 65 | −48 | 14 | |
| 5 | Lions Gibraltar | 18 | 1 | 5 | 12 | 13 | 45 | −32 | 8 | |

### Challenge Group results

| Home \ Away | COL | EPO | LGI | LYN | MAN |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| College 1975 | | 5–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–1 |
| Europa Point | 2–1 | | 1–1 | 0–3 | 0–4 |
| Lions Gibraltar | 1–1 | 0–1 | | 4–2 | 0–0 |
| Lynx | 0–2 | 0–2 | 2–0 | | 1–4 |
| Manchester 62 | 2–0 | 2–2 | 1–1 | 0–2 | |

## Season statistics

    As of 25 April 2022

### Scoring

**Top scorers**

| Rank | Player | Club | Goals |
| - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Juanfri | St Joseph's | 14 |
| 2 | Antonio Pino | Europa | 12 |
| 3 | Kike Gómez | Lincoln Red Imps | 11 |
| 4 | Liam Walker | Lincoln Red Imps | 10 |
| 5 | Juampe | Europa | 9 |
| 5 | John-Paul Duarte | Mons Calpe | 9 |
| 7 | Adrián Gallardo | Europa | 7 |
| 7 | Stefano Borghi | Glacis United | 7 |
| 7 | Javi Moreno | Mons Calpe | 7 |
| 7 | Boro | St Joseph's | 7 |

**Hat-tricks**

| Player | For | Against | Result | Date |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| Javi Casares | Bruno's Magpies | Europa Point | 5–0 (H) | 17 October 2021 |
| Antonio Pino | Europa | Lions Gibraltar | 9–0 (A) | 17 December 2021 |
| Ayoub El $Hmidi^5$ | Mons Calpe | Europa Point | 10–0 (A) | 8 January 2022 |
| Kike $Gómez^4$ | Lincoln Red Imps | Europa Point | 5–1 (A) | 22 January 2022 |
| Jaiden Bartolo | Manchester 62 | Lynx | 4–1 (A) | 5 March 2022 |

**Clean Sheets**

| Rank | Player | Club | Clean sheets |
| - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Alan Martin | Bruno's Magpies | 8 |
| 2 | Christian Lopez | Europa | 6 |
| 3 | Jamie Robba | St Joseph's | 4 |
| 3 | Edu Oliva | College 1975 | 4 |
| 5 | Marcos Zappacosta | Glacis United | 3 |
| 5 | Christian Arco | Lincoln Red Imps | 3 |
| 5 | Dayle Coleing | Lincoln Red Imps | 3 |
| 5 | Borja Valadés | Lions Gibraltar | 3 |
| 5 | Bradley Avellano | Lynx | 3 |
| 5 | Adam Stevens | Manchester 62 | 3 |
| 5 | Christian Fraiz | Mons Calpe | 3 |
| 5 | Jordan Perez | Glacis United | 3 |
