Ramón Azeez was the great absentee in the call of Granada for the cup match at La Rosaleda. The midfielder is not a regular in Diego Martínez's line-ups and it was taken for granted that he would have his chance in the KO tournament. However, it was left off the list because has asked the Nasrid club to go out in this winter market looking for more game minutes. This was confirmed by the Granada coach himself after the meeting. “Azeez has been left out by technical decision. You have requested to go out in this winter market and we have thought it convenient that you have time to solve your personal situation “, he claimed.
Granada currently has six players to occupy the center of the field: Gonalons (injured), Montoro, Yangel Herrera, Luis Milla, Eteki and Azeez. It remains to be seen if the club decides to go to the market to reinforce the core. The rojiblancos have already played 30 official matches and they are still alive in all three competitions: League, Cup and Europa League.
“Passing the tie has a lot of merit”
Regarding the tie against Málaga, Diego Martínez was very satisfied with the result and with the performance of his less usual players: “I congratulate the whole team. My players had a very good first half translated on the scoreboard. When Málaga scored in the final stretch, the game was somewhat complicated. Málaga have a lot of young people and they are a competitive team. Passing the tie has a lot of merit. The players who were playing less regularly played a good game. There have been good deeds though in the last third we have lacked a fang. It is difficult to manage all the situations of minutes of play, recoveries … We are still alive in all three competitions and we are already in the round of 16 of the Copa del Rey ”.
Wear takes its toll and the calendar has not given the Nasrid team a truce throughout the season. “I don't like to be repetitive, but today we have played our 30th match in official competition and it is mid-January”, Argues Diego.
The Galician coach also had words of praise for Málaga, a team in which “there are old acquaintances whom I have had the opportunity to train and we wish him all the best for the league”.