Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (EFE).- The coach of UD Las Palmas, Francisco Javier García Pimienta, has stated that his team must be brave and lead in this Saturday’s derby against CD Tenerife at the Heliodoro Rodríguez López stadium, because, in his opinion, they play “a little more” than the rival.
The Catalan coach has repeated this intention several times during the press conference prior to the clash, knowing the “importance” of a match of these characteristics, in which the difference in points in the standings “does not matter”.
Pimienta will present the game “as one more away from home”, but being “brave and protagonists”, and knowing the “strengths and possible weaknesses” of Tenerife, which he has praised despite the irregular trajectory that it has been taking this season, closer from the relegation places than from fighting for promotion again, as they did the previous season until the promotion final against Girona.
“I don’t know what could have happened to them this season because they keep the block and the coach, but it didn’t start well and they haven’t been able to get going, it’s the toughness of this Second Division. Nor do I see that any team has thrashed or beaten him, because against Eibar at home he did not deserve to lose 0-1, nor in Gijón either, but he has the potential to react ”, he explained.
Pimienta believes that his team, after two “tough” draws against Andorra and Málaga, is “more than prepared” to win the derby, in a match that is “demanding to the maximum”, but must do things “better than in these last two games”, in which they have had a “bad taste in their mouths”.
The Catalan coach acknowledges that in the two derbies last season “they were better”, but in the first round this season (3-1), “they couldn’t do more because Las Palmas was better”.
In addition, he believes that the yellow team has an “advantage” due to the fact that they have “many home players who have internalized what a derby is” in their squad, and he considers that this will play in their favor.
Asked about the possibility that Kirian Rodríguez from Tenerife, after overcoming his illness, will have his first minutes precisely in what was his home, Pimienta changed his countenance to indicate that although the player is “very close” to being “one more ”, he neither knows nor considers that circumstance, although the day he returns, “sooner rather than later”, it will be “very good news”. EFE