JIM: Almeria lacked firepower

Almeria boss Juan Ignacio Martinez was left to rue his team’s lack of firepower in the 2-1 weekend defeat at Athletic Bilbao.

Eighth-placed Bilbao made it five La Liga wins a row, Xabier Etxeita and Mikel Rico sealing the points in a 2-1 win, with Mikel Balenziaga putting through his own goal for the visitors’ reply.

“We were doing okay at 1-0 but when they scored the second it was a blow,” admitted Martinez at a Press conference.

“However, I was pleased at how my players responded because Athletic played very well in the first half when they put the ball into our area.

“But in the second half we continued to improve, although we lacked firepower.”

Martinez lamented the sending off of Fran Velez and the yellow card shown to Thomas, which means both will miss the next match against Levante.

“Athletic played as they wanted in the final few minutes, with the efficiency of all the big teams, but the cards we were shown backfired on us as we are a team that plays without violence,” he explained.

Tags Juan Ignacio Martinez
La Liga - Club News