C.D. Leganés' coach, Asier Garitano, gave the usual pre-match press conference before the match that the pepineros will play this Saturday (18:15) at Butarque against C.E. Sabadell, corresponding to the thirty-third matchday of LaLiga SmartBank.
Asier assessed the state of the team after the last defeat in Mallorca: "After losing, the next day you're annoyed. But we know where we are and the opportunity we have. We have ten fundamental matches left and we are ready. The difficulty to achieve direct promotion is much greater than before, but we need to have a good end to the season to see if we can reach our objective, which is to be promoted to the First Division," he said.
"We have the same illusion of trying to take the team to the highest category".
The coach confirmed the absences of Palencia, Lasure, Avilés and Ignasi Miquel, as well as the return of Jonathan Silva to the call-up list: "He has been three weeks with a nagging shoulder, but we have the player's commitment and tomorrow he will be ready to play".
Garitano hopes to end the three-match week with a victory: "It was a very important week with matches against two rivals ahead of us. I'm fine, with the same illusion of trying to take the team to the top flight. We have to have balance, good feelings, compete every game to get as high as possible. We are going to believe that we can achieve this. To be among the best is to have a very good season, the eight months that this team has been competing have been good", he assured.
"Sabadell is going to be difficult because they have a good team and they will do different things".
The player from Bergara sees the team excited to achieve the objective: "We are very excited, there are thirty points left. Having the possibility of playing in the play-offs has to excite everyone. We have to be happy to be among the best. Do we have the ambition to go higher? Yes, but we are in the top six and we have to value and enjoy it. The teams at the top (Espanyol and Mallorca) have been very consistent and it's not easy for them to drop points. They are proving that they are the best teams in the category and they are one point above the other teams".
Asked about tomorrow's opponent, Asier commented that they know "the line we want to take to have options, and the team will respond. Sabadell is going to be a very difficult opponent because they are well worked, they will do different things to other rivals and all the teams now have a lot at stake and make it very difficult for you. Let's see if we are ready to play a good game against Sabadell, which is the idea".
