QUIQUE: "THE SCORELINE REFLECTS HOW OPEN THE GAME WAS"

Quique Sánchez Flores shared his frustration at dropping two points in the closing minutes of Monday's draw with Almería: "Many strong and in-form teams have come here recently and not managed to win. Girona, Athletic... I'm not making comparisons, but we knew it would be a difficult place to play and they fought until the very end. If we'd drawn 1-1, we might feel prouder, but now it just feels like we dropped two important points. That's football, but now we have to analyse the reasons for our mistakes in crucial moments. We have enough experience to know how to protect a lead at the end of a match act in those types of situations at the end of the match."

"For me, the scoreline reflects the fact it was an open game. It was busy at both ends. We came into this game being very difficult to score against, but tonight we played more on the front foot and created more chances. Unfortunately, that doesn't necessarily translate into us scoring more goals, so we have to keep working in that department. At 2-1, we thought we'd wrapped things up. Now we came away with the feeling that we dropped two points, but what's done is done now. We have to start thinking about the next match."

The head coach also reflected on the return of Acuña, Gudelj and Lukebakio after several weeks out: "Their inclusion is huge because those guys transformed the game for us. We created the most numbers of chances we've made for a long time, but we just weren't as sharp defensively. We weren't doing the things we should've done. Almeríá gave us opportunities to exploit their defence when they came forward. However, they also showed that they have the quality to threaten us. Now the focus is on Saturday: "We will take a similar approach when taking on Celta. They have better players and play better football than their league position suggests. Each match is going to be really tough, so we have to absorb the pressure and give everything so we can achieve the best possible outcomes."