Important victory
“It’s a very important day for us. This is a rival that isn’t easy to counteract, although it doesn’t seem they’re having a great time at the moment. We did our job pretty well. I believe that the will of my players, and the faith they’re shown in this type of approach led to us winning a game, which would have made things very difficult if we hadn’t scored any points. We’ve been saying for some time that we were fine, playing well and today we confirmed two things: good gameplay and a very good result”.
The rival - Real Sociedad de fútbol
“You’ll all think that you were wrong, whilst we will think we’ve done a great deal to be slightly successful. This team has suffered, as when they lose the ball or are made to defend, they struggle, yet that’s where we’ve sought our strengths. We found them, we took the lead on the scoreboard and created promising situations, good possessions and dangerous counterattacks. As I remember, apart from a good save by Roberto, we didn’t suffer much more than the centre-backs, as they’re good. In this case I remain with the good work of Málaga, and the fact we counteracted very well against Real Sociedad”.
Close in the standings
“We’re all pressing. Alavés have won two games…Alavés in minute 80 against Girona seemed to be out of the rankings, yet won that match and also the other day. Now the gaps are getting tighter, as all the bottom teams (Dépor, Alavés and us) are driving everyone. The season, as we’ve said before, is very long, and some consider themselves safe, but there are teams with 11 points, and a difference of four or five points is nothing in this classification”.
Players’ sacrifice
“Peñaranda sustained a very painful blow to the iliac crest and is practically unable to move, which is why he had to come off. He couldn’t even take a step, in fact he needed assistance to leave the pitch as he was unable to walk. We have other players…Recio also sustained a blow and Adrián played with a fever. The players are giving their all, as they know of our necessity”.
Numbers
“The numbers change a lot depending on how the team is. Surely today we’ll see what we want much more closely, as we would’ve viewed the match against Betis with a different morale had we not scored points. The team is not so much about the numbers, but about things we’ve been talking about recently. We’ve been playing well since the match against Athletic de Bilbao, far more stable, and although many thought we’d miss Rolan a lot today, we didn’t really as we were working as a team. That’s why we’ve kept a clean sheet in the last two games. Inevitably we’ll look at the numbers, but as I told the lads at the beginning of the match; don’t focus on the standings, because if we do the best thing is that we might surrender, which we’re not going to do, as we saw today”.
