Joseba Etxeberria predicts "an intriguing game" against Racing
The Eibar coach calls for "a commitment from everyone to make us more reliable defensively"
Joseba Etxeberria has stated that Friday's game against Racing Santander at Ipurua (20:30h) "is not just another game" and will have "many attractions" as it is the first game of the second half of the season, due to the negative result in the previous meeting this season at El Sardinero "and because if we win, we'll surpass them".
Speaking at the press conference ahead of Friday's clash, the Eibar coach stressed that "it's hard for us to keep a clean sheet and we need everyone's commitment in order to be more reliable defensively".
JOSEBA ETXEBERRIA’S PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES
“Venancio and Sergio will be out, Qasmi and Cris we will see in training tomorrow as they are doubts. It’s good news for the second half of the season that we have less injuries, as the second half of the season has more suspensions, often more injuries, and the form of each player.”
“There won’t be many moves. We have a big squad and our obligation is to be alert to the market, anything that could improve our squad, I think Eibar have to be ready and that’s what we’re working on. We won’t give anything away about what we could be looking to reinforce or who could leave, it would only distract us as we have a lot to play for.”
“We need to give our best version of ourselves, even if the club is working in the market. We need the best of each player to win against Racing.”
“We know that we need to have a better second half of the season than the first. If we win on Friday, we’ll go ahead of Racing.”
“Rober Correa is 100%, which is another tool who can help us. In the second half of the season he will help us.”
“The important thing is to play as a reliable team. In the break we have analysed the first half of the season. There have been three phases. In the first, we didn’t win because we played badly. In the second, we showed that we can compete for anything. In the third, we weren’t much worse than the second but we made mistakes and conceded avoidable goals, with sendings off and penalties, so we need to focus more like the second part. If we play at that level, we’ll get a lot of points, hopefully starting this Friday.”