Pellegrini

The Chilean-born coach states: “We had a good first half and controlled the ball well, but we lacked a certain degree of creativity near the penalty area.  Espanyol’s second goal was the decider.  They maintained a solid defence throughout the game, with seven or eight players defending very well, which prevented our counter-attack,” affirms Pellegrini.
 
Regarding the goalkeeping error by Willy Caballero that put the visitors in the lead by 0-1, the Málaga CF coach adds: “We’re only human and everyone makes mistakes.  Willy always puts on a fantastic performance in every match, but he was just unlucky today.”  Pellegrini went on to say that this type of error could be avoided with a more creative style of play.
 
There’s a break in the League next week for international commitments, although Pellegrini affirms: “We’re going to keep working as hard as we can and continue on in our fight for European positions.  There’s still a lot worth fighting for and there are still a lot of points in play.  The fight for the top spots in the League will be extremely tight, and will be decided by just one or two points.”


Mixed zone

Málaga CF’s Duda appeared in the mixed zone today.  Following his fifth yellow card, he won’t be part of the match in Vallecas: “They were lucky with the first goal, and they were fully aware of how dangerous we can be on the counter-attack.  Espanyol had a strong defence today that we were unable to overcome.” 
 
Regarding the League break next week, Diego Lugano states: “The League is very tight at the moment but we’ve got some time off now to recover, so we can hopefully return to winning ways.”