RC Deportivo coach, Pepe Mel, acknowledged that Espanyol’s first goal left our lads “dazed for the rest of the first half” but indicated that the players’ performance after half time “was not to draw, but to win the game”.

“I sincerely believe we started the match well, we reached their box two or three times. But the goal annihilated us; it left us dazed for the rest of the first half. We tried solving this in the dressing room, we went out as if we were 0-0-, we second half we played was not to draw, but to win the game”, he summarised.

“Nobody can say absolutely anything to the players because the first goal was a misfortune, they’re things that happen once every hundred games”, Mel argued. He went on to state “if my team plays like they did in the second half, I have no doubt that out of six points that are left, we will do what is needed”.

Asked about Edu Expósito’s debut, the Deportivista coach replied, “he’s a lad with a splendid future and we thought that today’s game was good for him. We needed another plan with 0-2 on the scoreboard, but I have complete faith in him, because he can offer so many things”.

Regarding the dressing room’s mood, Mel said, “tomorrow we are going to train, lift people up, isolate them a little from everything and that they only listen to me; that in their heads they only have the image of the last 50 minutes of the match. I am going to try and not let all the negativity that surrounds us, I’m not saying it's unreasonable, penetrate the dressing room.

Mel was also questioned about the situation the team is in with two games to go. The Deportivista coach bluntly replied “I’m sure if you ask my friend Rubí (Sporting’s coach), he would change for me with his eyes closed”. Referring to RC Deportivo’s possibilities of staying in first division, he was to the point: “We’re most probably going to suffer, but I’m sure we’ll achieve it”.

Espanyol’s coach, Quique Sánchez Flores, assured that “if Deportivo didn’t play with the despair it’s playing because of its situation, it’s a team with very good player that can play very good football, as they did in the second half”.

“We knew we could face the Deportivo we faced in the second half in the first half, but we began well, we did a good first half. The second half wasn’t the type of game we wanted but we ended up competing it”, said the Catalan team’s coach.