Real Oviedo centre back David Costas appeared before the media today at El Requexón.
Following the first team's return to work, the Galician defender started by analysing the taste left by the last game of the regular season. “During the first half we weren’t thinking about Riazor, our game was proving to be difficult and Cádiz were pushing us. Yes, we noticed at some moment people seemed a bit down and soon after, during halftime we understood the reason was because of the scoreline of Elche. These situations happen a lot in this kind of matchday."
Next, David Costas spoke about the state of the team in relation to the upcoming playoffs, saying that “we are looking forward to it. Last year I wasn’t available until the day of Cornella, and I’m really looking forward to supporting and helping. And to accomplishing our goal. The team, once we knew we were going to play in the playoffs, started to think about what we lacked last year.” Furthermore, Costas reflected on his feelings about what it would mean to achieve promotion, “To get promoted with Real Oviedo would be the happiest day of my career. I was at Celta for a long time, but I didn’t have the same feeling of importance there. Here I feel more connected to all of it. I’ve been here four years and this would be the best moment of my career.”
Asked about how the team will approach the next match this upcoming weekend at Almería, Costas explained, “we’ve had a good year, we finished third with 75 points. We didn’t reach automatic promotion which is unfortunate, but it is what it is and now we have to fight. These past few months we’ve got into a good rhythm, and we’re feeling good and it will be a good fixture.”
As far as the differences in the atmosphere at Almería and the one that awaits next Wednesday in Carlos Tartiere, the Galician believes, “on a social level, based on Real Oviedo’s history and the difficult recent history, what people feel and experience here is hard to find in other places. Almería has their fans and they’ll be supported, but what we have here in Oviedo isn’t found anywhere else.”
Asked about the absence of Luis Suárez, who will be on international duty with his national team, the Oviedo defender explained, “he is a game-changing player who always makes it tough for you. We would have been facing a similar situation with Fede Viñas, this is football. The division continues to have a higher and higher level of talent and that’s how it goes. It works out well for us this way, but by no means can we relax because Almería is still a strong squad. They are now the only team left that was recently relegated that is still in the fight at this stage and this shows how competitive the division is. Almería has players from the Primera División, but we have shown a lot of strength these past months.”
Finally, on the subject of how they will face the first knockout round of 180 minutes, David Costas reassured, “getting a good result at Almería will be very important, obviously. This will be a very intense encounter, competitive and hard. We have to play like it's a final, without holding anything back. We can’t have any regrets, you have to go to win.”