Anxo Carro · Profile

The Estadio Anxo Carro opened on 31 August 1974 with a three-team tournament featuring Club Deportivo Lugo, Club Lemos of Monforte and Deportivo de La Coruña. The home side first got past Lemos on penalties and then lost the final 1-0 to the team from A Coruña. Lugo were in their second spell in the Spanish fourth tier, the Tercera División, at the time, and the new ground, built on one of the banks of the river Miño, became their home. The natural grass pitch measures 105 by 70 metres.

The origin of the name

The stadium is named after Ángel Carro Crespo, a figure closely tied to sport in Lugo, who oversaw the construction of the city's old football ground and presided over the Círculo de las Artes, a local cultural society, in 1934. The Galician form of his first name, Anxo, is the one that stuck for the venue, although older documents and match reports also call it Ángel Carro. Other municipal sports facilities sit beside the stadium, such as the A Cheda pitch and the O Palomar complex, and the Lugo trade fair and congress centre lies nearby.

From the lower tiers to professional football

In its first decades the Anxo Carro followed Lugo between the Tercera División and Segunda B. The club went up to Segunda B in 1978, came down in 1979 and returned for the 1985-86 season. The big step came in 1992, when Lugo won the play-offs and reached the Spanish second division for the first time. That 1992-93 campaign was the only one the ground saw at that level in the 20th century, as the team were relegated at the end of the season. In 2003 Lugo dropped to the Tercera División, and in 2006 they won back their place in Segunda B.

The 2001 rebuild

By the late 1990s the stadium was badly run down. In 2001 it underwent a full rebuild designed by architects José Arias, Santiago Catalán and Eduardo Herráez. The three existing stands were renovated and seats were fitted throughout, so the ground gained facilities but its capacity fell to 4,800. On 3 January 2007 it hosted the final of the Copa Xunta de Galicia, the Galician regional cup, which Lugo lost 3-2 to Celta de Vigo.

Spain under-21s and the 2012 promotion

On 5 September 2011 the Anxo Carro welcomed the Spain under-21 team, who beat Georgia 2-0 in a qualifier for the 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Championship. Sergio Canales scored both goals, one of them from the penalty spot. A year later the stadium staged the first leg of the promotion play-off final against Cádiz. Lugo won 3-1 at home, Cádiz returned the same score in the second leg and, after a goalless period of extra time, the Galicians prevailed on penalties. That 2012 promotion began a run of eleven straight seasons in the second division, from 2012-13 to 2022-23. The best finish was ninth in 2016-17, and in October 2017 the team briefly topped the table.

The temporary stand and changing capacity

Professional football demanded more room. In the summer of 2013 a temporary stand holding just over 2,000 spectators was installed behind the south goal, and most of the seats were covered. Capacity climbed back to close to 8,000. The first sell-out after that work came on 3 May 2014, in the Galician derby between Lugo and Deportivo, which finished 2-2. In 2019, because of municipal rules and the requirements of the Spanish professional football league, the temporary stand was partly dismantled and capacity was set at 7,114. In April 2023 Lugo's relegation to the Primera Federación, the Spanish third tier, was confirmed, and the stadium hosted that division's matches from the 2023-24 season.

The Xunta-funded renovation

In 2025 the Galician regional government, the Xunta de Galicia, presented a plan to renovate all four stands, with a stated budget of 3.8 million euros. The project included replacing the temporary south stand with a fixed one, upgrading toilets, bars and shared areas in the north and west ends, strengthening the structure and roof of the main stand, widening walkways and entrances and wrapping the whole exterior in red metal cladding. By July 2026 the prefabricated modules of the new south stand, with room for around 1,300 fans, had been installed.