Osasuna vs Espanyol preview - Lolo: Make home a fortress
Posted Saturday, January 04, 2014 by PA
Osasuna midfielder Lolo has emphasised the need for his team to reassert themselves in home games ahead of the visit of Espanyol.
The Navarrans are 18th in the Primera Division table and have won just two games at El Sadar all season, a record Lolo believes they must improve on in 2014, beginning with the game against Javier Aguirre's side.
"We have a points deficit and the fewer games we win from now on, the harder we will have to fight towards the end of the season," he told a press conference.
"We have to make El Sadar a fortress and make sure we don't drop points to our direct rivals. We're not as strong at home anymore as we have been in recent years and we've lost a lot of points against direct rivals.
"We normally pick up the majority of points we need to avoid relegation at home and we have to start doing that again."
The midfielder also insisted that the team were not distracted by their upcoming Copa del Rey tie with Real Madrid.
"The cup will come around later but the most important thing for us is the league," he said.
"We are all aware that Osasuna's objective is survival and there's no two ways about that. The club needs to be in the top flight, that's where we deserve to be."
The hosts will be without the injured pair of Miguel de Las Cuevas and Nino, while Damia Abella is suspended.
Espanyol, meanwhile, could be without Sergio Garcia, who, along with Gabriel Torje, was forced to miss training on Thursday with a fever.
The Catalans ended 2013 with a resounding 4-2 win over Real Valladolid and midfielder David Lopez is hoping for a similar performance and result against Osasuna to get the new year off to a strong start.
"It would be great to pick up where we left off in our last game and start 2014 well," he told reporters.
"It's important that we win because then we would go into our next games with a different attitude, and we've got a difficult schedule this month."
But he warned that the match with Javi Garcia's side would be no picnic.
"We're going to a difficult ground, where the fans put a lot of pressure on you," he said.
"Osasuna are an uncomfortable side to play because they don't give away many goals and don't need to do very much to score."
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