A complicated victory
“We’re all thrilled. We’re not going to make excuses for the situation we’re in, one of tremendous difficulty and complexity in terms of management and the risk of being exposed to eventualities, as happened today. We had players today who were in the starting line-up for the first time, such as Luis Hernández and Lombán, who have been suffering with injury discomfort during the pre-season. This was a sports risk that forced us to manage the game with a great degree of uncertainty and complexity”.
Great effort and commitment from the players
“We’re very happy, we’ve congratulated the players who showed their professionalism. David endured play with physical problems from the outset; Luis Hernández did as much as he was able to do. They made a massive effort and the victory is a reward for that effort and commitment, that belief that adversities can be overcome. We won a very difficult match against a hard-working rival, who made the game highly complex”.
Match analysis
“We took an approach in order to try and correct the weaknesses we detected over the pre-season, playing with three central defenders from the start. The team got off to a good start, dominated the rival and had great presence in the rival area. However, we soon began to suffer with physical problems, both David and Luis, which conditioned the game. The match altered and we had to work more effectively closer to our goal, despite our idea of dominating the rivals. In the second half we changed the system and we tightened up well. The first 25 minutes was focused on having a good counterattack however Racing countered this very well, generated numerous chances and we decided to change to a 4-5-1, which made us more compact. From then on, we dominated the final 20 minutes, created opportunities, not just the goal. That forcefulness in both areas led us to victory”.
