1-2 UD Almeria new leaders in the SmartBank League!
The UD Almeria team achieve their third consecutive victory and catch Cádiz CF, while leaving SD Huesca sitting third five points behind
Almeria achieved their third victory against Extremadura UD in the SmartBank League and become the new leaders of the competition. Almeria are now ahead of leaders Cadiz CF courtesy of their superior goal difference. SD Huesca are their second closest challengers sitting five points behind in the table. The Almeria team had to suffer because Extremadura did not make things easy in the first-half. However, in the second-half, our players recovered their footballing identity with goals from Darwin Núñez and Juan Muñoz to seal a victory.
José María Gutiérrez rotated his starting line-up aiming to add three new points and topping the SmartBank League after Cádiz’s defeat in La Coruña. The head coach decided to stretch the defensive line with three centre-backs (Maras, Petrovic and Ozornwafor) and two wing-backs (Corpas and Jonathan Silva) to counter any threat down the wings. César de la Hoz, Kaptoum in the centre circle. Vada and Lazo supported attack from the wings behind the lone striker Darwin Núñez. Balliu, Iván Martos, Aguza and Juan Muñoz, who played against Real Oviedo last Thursday, were not in the starting eleven.
Extremadura could only escape the relegation zone by winning. There was plenty at stake so they played really well with the ball characterised by their intensity and aggressiveness. It seemed Extremadura had the lesson well learnt as they put too much pressure on Almeria from the very beginning. The extremeños not only dominated and were on the lead but also generated danger. It was obvious that our players were not comfortable on the pitch.
The minutes went by and the situation was going from bad to worse. Almeria had no capacity to react, and Extremadura continued to be stronger and created big chances. Fernando made a couple of outstanding saves.
After 33 minutes Almeria woke up; Vada stole a ball and assisted Darwin Núñez, who pulled the trigger but failed to score. A foul committed on Vada transformed into a penalty helped our striker to make it 0-1 before going into half-time. In the 42nd minute, Extremadura tied thanks to Cristian who scored a worldy. Almeria did not know how to keep on being on the lead and Extremadura performed a stunning comeback. The score was one-all at the end of the first-half.
In the second-half things changed. The UD Almeria first team went out onto the pitch with another attitude and being very bullish. It was then when Almeria started to shine. In the 62nd minute Balliu replaced Vada and Juan Muñoz took over Ozornwafor. The head coach changed the system and placed Darwin Núñez and Juan Muñoz as a deadly partnership of strikers. José María Gutiérrez had to make the third inevitable change when Petrovic got injured in the 72nd minute. It was Iván Martos’ turn to do his bit by playing as a centre-back teaming up with Maras.
The match entered its final stretch with Almeria failing to complete their offensive actions until a tie-breaker came on minute 85 with Darwin Núñez and Juan Muñoz making it 1-2 on the scoreboard. All in all, Almeria had to suffer until the end.