Fertiberia rely on a packed Pabellón Port de Sagunt to beat Bidasoa

Toni Malla: ‘As nothing is impossible in life, we are going to try, and that is why it is important that the pavilion is packed on Saturday as always’

Fertiberia Balonmano Puerto Sagunto face Bidasoa Irún on Saturday 9 December, from 18:30. The match, corresponding to Matchday 14 of the Liga Profesional Plenitude Asobal, pits the red-and-whites against the side in second place, who have enjoyed a historic first half of the season by breaking their personal record for points won. The red-and-white team are in a very different situation: they are outside the automatic relegation places, but very close to SinFin and Cangas, who occupy the bottom two positions.

Red-and-white coach Toni Malla says: ‘The defeat in Cuenca hurt us the other day, especially the second half, when we were not good overall in any aspect of the game. Our main objective during these remaining two weeks is to improve defensively because I do not think we are performing well. Against teams that are better than us, if we want to earn points or come away with positive feelings, we have to defend better, stay closer together and be more aggressive. For the past three seasons, our team has been characterised by defending and being organised in attack. I believe that is our essence, and it is what we will work on over these two weeks.’

Regarding Bidasoa Irún, Malla says ‘There is not much to say about a team that is second. They have been working with Jacobo for many seasons and are a side that play almost by memory, despite having absentees. They are superior to us in terms of budget and squad, but we have to try to play a match in which we surpass them in intensity and aggression. That is the only way we can try to earn points. We have to approach every match with this mentality because we are not in a situation where we need to do the maths. Therefore, this week’s objective is to make things very difficult for a great opponent through intensity, attitude and the desire to try to earn points.’

‘It will be our second match in the new pavilion, and I hope it remains full and that people remain excited about us because, in difficult moments, when you have injuries and things are not going very well, we need the support of our fans to give us that extra boost. We saw this in the Cangas match: the large difference achieved was because the fans were involved from start to finish. As nothing is impossible in life, we are going to try, and that is why it is important that the pavilion is packed on Saturday as always,’ Malla concludes regarding the importance of the supporters.

Translation produced using artificial intelligence.