UD Almería goalkeeper Fernando Martínez returned to the starting XI replacing injured Luis Maximiano, putting in a great performance in which he made several saves that helped the Rojiblancos bag 3 vital points. The goalkeeper gave his take on the victory on UDA Radio: 'The team has just had a bad season, this one hasn't had the start we all expected either and when joy like yesterday comes, everything is celebrated much more. Euphoria is always good, but it's a short week. In 3 days we have another match that we're thinking about now because we need to get several wins in a row if we want to get to the top of the table.'

 

The Murcia native is aware of what was the key to the 1-2 victory at La Romareda in Zaragoza: 'Our strengths were the level of concentration and total commitment of the entire team throughout the game, even from the warm-up it was clear that everyone wanted to win. Maybe we're fine most of the time, but that lack of concentration takes its toll on us.'

 

The 34-year-old goalie, who had not appeared on the pitch since the last Matchday of the 2023/24 season shared his feelings prior to playing the match against Real Zaragoza: 'When you haven't played for a long time and you know that you aren't going to have many opportunities, you don't experience it the same as when you come from the activity. You try to forget everything, focus on the game and as the minutes go by, gain confidence little by little.' On that note, Fernando detailed how he experienced one of his saves in the match, in which he prevented the skilled team from levelling things up: 'It's a messy play where the ball is between many legs, we tried to clear it and we couldn't and in that disorder the ball falls to a player near the goal and I went out, but it bounces off my calf. I was lucky to be able to catch it.' 

 

The Zamora trophy winner trusts that one of the keys to success in climbing up positions in the table can be to chain several wins in a row: 'Having a good winning streak would be the best medicine. After winning a game you have to be happy, but we must control that euphoria. We have to be aware that we're a team made to earn promotion and we need to expect to win games.'