Sergio Pellicer, Málaga CF coach, held a press conference in the Carlos Belmonte press room after the 3-2 defeat by Albacete.

Firstly, when asked about the impact of the expulsion on the outcome of the match, he said it was “key. In the three games I've managed there were 180 minutes in numerical inferiority, 30-40% of the time,” he added.

Further exploring the analysis of #AlbaceteBPMálaga, he went on to say: “The match started very well for Albacete, a team that worked hard with a positive dynamic and players with a great deal of determination and confidence. We had 10 minutes of uncertainty, we worked on it, we talked about it and that is what surprised me. How the match started, and the set pieces made us believe and, from there, it turned into another game. The expulsions are situations in which we give the rival a lot of margin which is something we can’t allow. We kicked -off the second half, we knew we had to defend with two lines of four and try to spread out to threaten them, but they soon scored the second goal. Then it was time for the next action. We tried until the end, knowing that we had to unprotect the spaces, leaving the rival with chances. The team kept insisting, we made the substitutions due to muscle fatigue in certain players, but we cannot look for excuses.”

He ended his first response with a message for the Malaguistas who travelled to Castilla - La Mancha: “Thank you to the 500 brave fans who came here from Malaga; We’re going to insist and work hard.”

Due to the development of the match with just 10 men, Pellicer acknowledged: “Today we lost a unique opportunity, with our fans, because of how the match turned out and how we managed to turn it around. I’m upset for all the fans who came to support the team. Words don’t mean anything, only winning counts. We have to go against the current, analyse a lot of things and focus on the positives we’ve done. The details are penalising us so much. After the expulsion it was a different game.”

Lastly, when asked about the rival, he focused on Málaga CF: “We represent a great club that’s going through a difficult situation. We need to get our heads down and work as hard as we can. We’ll fight until the end.”