Spanish La Liga: midweek fixtures preview -
Zaragoza v Hercules & Almeria v Levante
Spanish La Liga team Hercules will be on a high after beating champions Barcelona recently, as they head into their midweek league encounter against Real Zaragoza. Hercules however will be missing their key striker Nelson Valdez
who is out due to an injury.
It will be a big loss, as Valdez was the man who scored the two goals against Barcelona that earned them a historic 2-0 win at the Nou Camp. The front man injured his abductor muscle while playing against Valencia on Sunday. Hercules
lost the match 2-1 but the injury to Valdez was of greater concern. After the match the Hercules manager had said that the injury may not be that serious but that the medical team would have to fully assess the injury before making any statements. Jeroni
Llorca, the team doctor, later said that Valdez would be out for at least ten days.
Valdez would not be the only big absentee for Hercules; midfielder Javier Farinos is also sidelined due to an ankle injury and will not be available for the match. Hercules have so far managed just 3 points from a possible 9. But
those 3 points were from a huge win and one that would’ve boosted their morale considerably.
Their opponents in Wednesday’s match, Real Zaragoza, have done even worse so far this season.
Zaragoza managed to draw their opening encounter against Deportivo La Coruna, but lost both of their next two matches. The Aragonese outfit is currently lying in the danger zone and is only one place off the bottom.
Team manager Jose Aurelio g*y would also be motivated to put on a show for the home fans after suffering a 5-3 defeat at the hands of Malaga.
One of the main players in the team, playmaker Nicolas Bertolo, believes that his team has a great chance of getting all three points in the next game. He added, "What we have to do now is keep our heads up and go out and win the
three points against Hercules."
"We're so down now and we want to win however we can, but we can't let the anxiety get to us - we have to do what we did in pre-season and not let our heads drop."
Meanwhile, another interesting midweek fixture would be Almeria hosting Levante.
Juanma Ortiz, the Almeria winger, believes that despite a poor start to the season his team has enough to look forward to and can improve in the next match. The midfielder said that the season is only three games old and there
are thirty-five more opportunities to get things right for his team.
The Andalusian team is currently 17th in the La Liga table. Almeria drew their first 2 games against Osasuna and Real Sociedad and in their last game suffered a narrow 1-0 loss at the hands of Espanyol.
When the season fixtures were announced it was believed that Almeria had been handed a favourable draw as far as the first two months of the season were concerned. Almeria however have not been able to make use of the easier ties
at the start of the season and have only gleaned two points from three games.
Juanma Lillo, the team manager, admitted that two points so far is less then acceptable, but also added that some teams take longer to get back in the groove and the start of the season probably came at the wrong time for his injury-afflicted
team.
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