Women

Sánchez Vera: "It's a special match, due to the time and the venue, it's a shout-out to the fans"

A derby of footballers, a derby of fans, and also a derby of coaches. José Sánchez Vera, coach of Levante UD Femenino, fulfilled the visit to Mestalla, the venue of Sunday's Teika Derby, two days before the big showdown against Valencia CF. There, the white and black coach Jesús Oliva awaited for the joint public appearance of both, who agreed on the special nature of the upcoming clash for the white and black and blue and white teams at the coliseum on Avenida de Suecia.

The Madrid native made his intentions clear. "Levante UD wants to beat Valencia CF and Valencia CF wants to beat Levante UD. We don't have pressure for the Champions League because it's not the club's set objective. We're here for eight to ten months of good work, other teams have the obligation, and we continue to bother and we want to win on Sunday to extend that situation," said Sánchez Vera, who emphasized the beauty of Sunday's duel. "It's always a very special and attractive match."

"Mestalla, the Ciutat, the people of the region are responding, it's a super attractive match," stressed the Granota coach when asked for an appeal to football fans, specifically those of both clubs, to achieve the best possible atmosphere. "If we want to continue growing and shaking the tree, everything that happens on the field is related to everything around us. The time, the venue, it's a call for all Valencia CF and Levante UD fans to come, cheer for their own, and experience a beautiful match and once again set the example that women's football gives us every day that it wants to grow and that we all need each other to keep progressing. Sunday has it all," he concluded.

Both rivals face the Teika Derby after overcoming the fifth of the six breaks for national team commitments in the F League. "The challenging weeks are for everyone, it's not an excuse, it's a complaint about the number of international breaks we have in women's football. Also, all the players who are from lower categories are called up, and it's difficult to maintain continuity in the work. These situations need to be changed, it's not an excuse because Valencia CF and the rest of the teams in the F League have also had them," lamented.

Regarding what the match could bring tactically, he warned of the situations in which Valencia has hurt Levante in the past. "There will be different nuances but we have to control transitions. Not only that, but also Maca, Asun, Fiamma, from driving forward they can harm you because they are vertical and have a lot of quality," emphasized. "There are things from the last games, even the ones we won, that we don't quite like, we've tried to turn the page," continued Sánchez Vera, who provided his perspective on what a victory would mean at this stage of the season. "If we win on matchday 24, more than consolidating, it's a cycle of confidence, a final effort with everything, of 'let's try it' and definitely be in a points margin until the last two or three matchdays to see who takes it. It would be stretching the rubber a little further, and we know that it depends on trying to get something here on Sunday," concluded the Madrid coach, who emphasized the significance of this Teika Derby. "We don't experience matches in these scenarios every day, being able to say that one day I won at Mestalla is something very nice, it's one of the historic stadiums in Spanish football. Last year we didn't achieve it, it slipped away from us, and hopefully on Sunday it can be that day and it can be one of those fields that we conquer, it would be something very nice."