Controlled match, except for the goal

“On the whole, I think it was a match that was destined to end in a draw. However, as soon as we went wrong in an action we should have been able to stop, a counterattack, we weren’t able to prevent it, and the rival scored. The players are obviously angry. When you make such an effort and you don’t reap the reward, that’s the feeling you’re left with. That said, we need to learn from this. We cannot allow for a lapse in concentration or confidence as you’ll pay dearly. We had a very good first half, with clear occasions in the first 15 minutes, completely dominating play, but we weren’t accurate in front of goal, which is key to a team’s performance. In the end, we paid the price. In normal circumstances, with more accuracy we could have scored more than one goal and we would have had many more options for victory. It wasn’t like that today, in the second half Ponferradina played a far more direct match, there were duels between the teams, the second plays were more divided actions. Things became more even, as in the first half we dominated, and the rival began to generate dangerous situations from these circumstances. We controlled them well despite the one that culminated in the goal”.

Learn from the match

“We’re angry we didn’t reap the reward for the work we did, both in terms of gameplay and effort. We must congratulate the players. We’ve talked about it and congratulated them for their commitment and sacrifice, but it also has to be a lesson and we must learn from these matches. If you aren’t able to score a goal in a match you have under control, you cannot afford to make any mistakes as they prove to be very costly, which is a shame. It’s time now to concentrate on the next game and keep improving”.

The team showed personality, we need to move on

“There’s a long way to go yet in the competition, lots of points at stake and what matters to us is the reliability of the game offered by the team, and the level of competitiveness. Today it didn’t help us to score, but the team showed personality, pressured the rival, we imposed our gameplay throughout, but we didn’t take the prize. We must continue on the same line and improve”.