Rubén Albés: “The team gave it everything they had and fought to win until the very end”

C.D. Leganés head coach Rubén Albés held a press conference this Sunday following the match between the Pepineros and Granada C.F. at Ontime Butarque Stadium, part of Matchday 6 of LALIGA HYPERMOTION 2026/27, which ended in a 3-2 victory.

The Galician coach offered the following assessment of the match:

Match Assessment: “I’ll have to watch the replay. It was very exciting, with a mix of control and chaos, and chances for both teams. In the end, the fans were incredible in cheering us on, and we won. The match was more about emotion than tactics, but even so, the team gave it everything they had, wanted to win until the very end, and in the final fifteen minutes, we were closer to winning than our opponent.”

Instructions to Gharbi: “Toward the end, we switched to a 4-4-2 defense; we weren’t maintaining control in some transitional situations, and he asked me if he should stay up front. I told him yes, and that was it.”

90th-Minute Wins at Home: “When we talked about being brave, that means having heart, believing until the very end, making offensive substitutions to try to win a chaotic game, creating more scoring chances on the field, and taking risks. That’s part of being brave and how we started and finished the game—which was the best part.”

A Match Decided by Mentality: “Two things come together here: on one hand, many of the players we’ve brought in who are coming in with a clean slate from last season, and on the other, players who’ve suffered a lot and are pushing to ensure it doesn’t happen again. I always tell them you can’t play with fear—you have to make decisions, and once you’ve made them, you have to be at peace with them. I’m aware that it’s unpopular to swap out two center backs for two others, but I believed that was the best move.”

Refereeing: “I’ve got enough on my plate with my own bench to worry about what’s happening on the other side. We all argue with the referee all the time—I ended up getting a yellow card. We had the usual back-and-forth; at one point I got heated and was shown a yellow card—that’s all there is to it.”

Three goals: “I said we had the potential to score, and that’s how it turned out. But we also had a lot of defensive disorganization—we weren’t solid—even though we created much more and had chances beyond the three goals.”

Four-player substitution: “I wanted to make four substitutions at once to change the momentum of the game. That in itself changes things. We were dropping back too deep on the defensive line, and having two new center backs who could handle duels without tiring could give us an advantage. Morata could provide an attacking threat, and with Dani we refreshed the wing. He has experience and played really well—I’m happy with his performance.”

A fun game for the fans, not for the coach: “I like to win, but you can’t always choose how to win. We weren’t looking for this kind of game; I feel like we had little control. We created a lot, but they got behind us, they crowded our box… These are situations we keep running into, and they have to serve as learning experiences so we can handle the next one better. The Castellón game will be completely different.”

Expected goals: “Good goalies and players with a knack for scoring. We’ll learn from all of this.”