The ‘Malaguista’ coach states: “This was a match between two teams that lacked a certain ‘punch’, but I must say that we played very good football. I don’t think Granada deserved to win, although they defended well and took advantage of a mistake we made. Málaga played well today.”
Pellegrini stresses the importance of qualifying for Europe next year: “We need to keep on fighting for our place in Europe next year, and keep as high up the table as possible from now until the end of the season.” With regards to the coveted fourth place and access to the Champions League: “It’s going to be extremely difficult from where we are now to return to this position.”
Iturra: “We lacked clarity towards the goal”
The Chilean-born midfielder is disappointed with the result at Los Cármenes: “We’re not happy as we’ve lost three points. We didn’t play badly, but we lacked clarity towards the goal.”
Iturra hoped to reverse this defeat in the remaining away matches of the season: “We’re determined to change our image from the last few difficult away games, but we were up against a tough rival today, who are fighting to remain in the First Division. It was unfortunate that we couldn’t come home with the result we wanted.”
Iturra remains ambitious ahead of the last games of the season: “For the good of the entire Club we’re aiming to finish as high up the League table as we can. Qualification to the Champions League will depend on other teams’ results, now more than ever. I hope we can at least qualify for the Europa League, we really deserve it after all our hard work and sacrifice this season.”
Sergio Sánchez: “We let three points slip through our fingers today, in our fight for fourth position.”
“We weren’t playing a very fluid match today, which our rival managed to take advantage of,” states Sergio Sánchez in the mixed zone at Los Cármenes Stadium.
The ‘Malaguista’ adds: “We’ll keep on fighting until the end to get as high up the League table as possible. We let three points slip through our fingers today, in our fight for fourth position.”
Sergio Sánchez continues: “It’d be so unfair if we didn’t qualify for European football next season, following such an amazing year for us.”
Pedro Morales: “Whilst there are still points to play for, we’ll never give up”
“We played well and created a number of goal opportunities, but we failed to get the result we needed in order to keep in the running for fourth place.” The Blue and Whites’ player adds: “Whilst there are still points to play for, we’ll never give up.”
