“We’ve lost the match with the ejection”
“We’ve lost the match with the ejection”
Gaizka Garitano, resigned to the defeat of his team, who played with ten players since the minute 22: “We emptied ourselves, but we have not faced an opponent in good time”
“It was cruel because you never expect to be left with ten players in the minute 20 of a match.” Gaizka Garitano thus expressed his disappointment at Athletic Club’s 2-0 defeat against CD Leganes, which left the lions with no chance of entering European competition. The red-and-white coach analysed the move that led to Unai Simon’s dismissal as follows: “It was a defensive mistake in a chain reaction and we don’t usually fail. But it meant that we were left with ten players, and you pay for an error like that. The team emptied itself afterwards and gave everything it had, but it was not enough against a team that is in good shape“.
Garitano emphasized the effort of his players that competed with one less player on the field: “The draw was not enough for us and in the last half hour we played in the upper field more and this allowed them, with one more player, have more space and seize it“. As for his farewell to the options of being in Europe, the red-and-white coach has pointed out “the greater offensive potential of the rivals we were competing against” as one of the reasons for staying, for the second year in a row, on the verge of a place in the Europa League: “Now we have a match ahead of us and we are going to try to end up the season in the best possible way with a victory in Granada“.