‘It’s up to Alavés to show that they belong to the top tier’
José Gomes shares his thoughts on tough-looking UD Almeria vs Deportivo Alaves third-round Copa del Rey tie.
‘It’s up to Alavés to show that they belong to the top tier,’ stated head coach José Gomes during a third-round cup tie preview before the Rojiblancos play at the Juegos Mediterraneos Stadium on Saturday, 16 January (kick-off 12 p.m.). The Portuguese boss argued in this regard that ‘when we played against Hospitalet and Numancia, I said once that we had to show on the pitch that we were a higher-level team, so if I were the Alavés head coach, I’d think the same way.’
José Gomes pointed out that ‘we also have our responsibility. We’ll be playing at home. We’re going to compete and we want to continue in the Spanish Cup as long as they let us. In my opinion it's a nice tournament.’
The UD Almería gaffer is keenly aware of the difficulty of the clash. Gomes considers it as a really tough game, although he explained that ‘we’re going to maintain our game philosophy and I hope that our ideas will help overcome Alavés. We’re working well and the players are focused and highly motivated.’ Despite not competing last weekend after the fixture against Leganés was called off, he stated that ‘we’re prepared to face this encounter. Not having played…which isn’t good, won’t be an excuse.’
As for the rivals, he stressed that ‘despite the change of head coach, I don’t really think they’ll make many modifications in their way of playing, but they will introduce some details to improve. Abelardo has already commented, that he did very well in his previous stage at Alavés and that he wants to strengthen the defensive organisation and become faster in counter-attacks, but apart from that, it’s a First Division team with great quality and very fast players high upfield. We’ll try to react quickly.’