GARCÍA PIMIENTA: "ON SUNDAY WE HAVE TO SHOW OUR RESPECT, NOT MAKE ANY MISTAKES AND GO FOR THE GAME"

Head coach Xavier García Pimienta spoke ahead of Sunday's match against Real Sociedad at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán. He began by stressing, "Football is secondary right now. All our solidarity goes out to all those affected. Everyone is getting involved and from here we send all our support to the victims of what has happened." 

Moving onto football,  Pimienta commented "We can't lose that essence of ours, we have played very good games at home with our fans and now we have a very demanding game. They are an opponent who are playing in the Europa League, who have quality players and in their defeat against Osasuna they didn't show the potential that they have. We want to be on the front foot, not make any mistakes and go for the game from the very start." 

"We have to set our objectives later and see what we can aspire to 

"We have played 11 league games. I feel good about the form we're in. Sunday's game will continue to show where we are as a team and the room we have to improve. We want to make the fans proud and we're going to fight for that on Sunday. We have to set our objectives later and see what we can aspire to depending on where we are," he continued.

On the absence of central defenders, he said, "Ramón will definitely be in the squad and tomorrow we will decide after training. There's Marcao, Kike, Ramón, even Carmona. I won't decide who will play on Sunday until Sunday".