JIM: Depor overwhelmed us

Juan Ignacio Martinez admits that Deportivo were in the ascendancy against his Levante, and he has also praised the referee.

An entertaining early match on Sunday saw Los Granotes run out 2-0 winners, but not before both teams were reduced to 10 men, Depor missed a penalty and had to field an outfield player in goal.

“We are very pleased. During the first half it looked like we had everything under control, but in the second half you have seen what happened, we were left with one less and had a penalty against us,” commented Martinez afterwards.

“Deportivo had overwhelmed us in the game, but we managed to bail water.

“We must recognise what happened in the game, the opponent had to change their two centre-backs, the Coach then went for the game with a third change, the penalty could have helped things perfectly, then the game was conditioned by their goalkeeper’s sending off. Depor have played well, although merit to Levante for not giving up.”

JIM had to do without Pape Diop, after a misunderstanding over his missing Senegal’s midweek match saw him banned by FIFA for the weekend.

“You cannot imagine how broken the player was yesterday. I think it was a misunderstanding. On Friday the President was making arrangements with the Senegalese Federation, several teammates missed the game and I think that in that there was a misinterpretation that affected him too.”

The Coach made a point of praising today’s referee, in light of the decisions that counted against the home side.

“I never talk about the referees, but today Perez Lasa was worthy. He had to be cool and in Coruna he was good. He had to have enough personality to make the decisions that he believed in, whether right or wrong, and he has not wavered.

“He has demonstrated his expertise, and he has done very well. He also made for a very good match.”

Tags Deportivo JIM Juan Ignacio Martinez
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