After the final whistle, Hercules’s ram’s fists rose, his arched back lifting toward the sky as if signaling the coach’s next words in the press room. It was a hard-fought, fiercely contested match, the kind that tests a team’s resolve. Since taking charge, the coach has guided the squad through a sequence of tough games, and this victory marked their seventh win in 13 days, lifting the team to within reach of a promotion spot. They pulled even with the three teams ahead of them—Zaragoza B, Manresa, and Terrassa—each sitting on 37 points and all chasing a playoff berth.
“I am very happy. Today was a difficult match for us because of the effort our players put in. It felt wonderful to see them stay calm under pressure and not slip up,” said Lolo Escobar after he sat down. “In these situations, the only thing that matters is adding three points. They gave us just one clear chance all game, and we took it. That is the path we follow,” commented the blue-and-white coach, noting that the win came without a flamboyant attack.
“The only thing that matters is adding three; we won the same way they did against us at other times.”
“We stopped the slide of bad results that hurt us, and we reaffirmed ourselves as a unit. We had to win today, first and foremost,” the coach explained. “We may not have created many opportunities, but in this league no one overwhelms us, and we did not let them. What we did was secure three points that fed the team’s hope and the supporters’ belief.”
“I accept any criticism about our play after we scored first, but this morning the priority was beating our opponent. Formentera, the Extremadura coach, did not issue a statement about why he made substitutions, including bringing Alvarito into the game at the 55th minute, which looked like a questionable call by the Madrid winger and showed on the field.”
“We cut a bleed with this win, reaffirmed ourselves as a team, and regained the illusion.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that. I’d like to see a player get upset if I pull him off. He was right not to justify his decision, saying he preferred the field to the careless and lazy players. I place the team’s needs before personal preferences in football. Today we secured the same three points they have won against us many times this season,” Escobar admitted, tacitly recognizing that Hercules did not dominate a one-on-one opponent that did not trouble the central defenders much. The match even featured a moment when a goal was ruled out for offside just before the final whistle, a decision that left some players puzzled but ultimately did not alter the result.