Estigarribia's blunt verdict: «The first half was one of the worst» | OneFootball

The defeat against Talleres left Unión very frustrated, but also with the need for some self-criticism. Marcelo Estigarribia was one of those who spoke after the 2-1 loss in Córdoba and did not shy away from responsibility when analyzing what happened. The forward plainly admitted the team’s poor performance in the opening half: “The first half was bad. For me, it was one of the worst first halves,” he acknowledged, arguing that El Tatengue was far from what had been planned during the week.

The reasons behind Córdoba’s dominance

Unión had serious difficulties pressing high, lost individual duels, and failed to combine clearly. On the other side, Talleres took control of the spaces and dictated the tempo of the match. “They moved the ball well, and we struggled a bit with the press. We weren’t good in that area, so it was hard for us to win the ball back and they got to our goal very easily,” explained “Chelo.” In his diagnosis, he added another structural flaw: “We were stretched, we weren’t doing well. We were late with the pressing and we also struggled to control the ball.”

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A late reaction without finishing touch

After the break, the outlook changed because Unión pushed its lines forward and tightened its marking. However, just when Tate seemed to be settling in, the home side struck again. “In the second half we fixed that, but we were already behind. We could have gotten the equalizer, but we didn’t have the finishing touch we had been showing in previous matches,” he said. On a personal level, he regretted a missed chance: “I had a clear scoring opportunity and I was missing that bit of luck you also need. You slip a little and it gets you down.” Even so, he took collective responsibility: “Beyond that, it wasn’t a good match. It was a terrible night for everyone, and I take responsibility for my part.”

Mentality and the objective of fighting near the top

The attacker said he was concerned by the lack of intensity at the start, something that goes against the identity the club stands for. “That’s obviously not the idea. Those are things we don’t want to repeat, and today it happened again in the first half. We have to fix that mentally, go out from the very first moment looking to win the match,” he said. Along those lines, he called for greater belief in their own potential: “We’re an annoying, tough opponent for everyone. We have to believe in ourselves a little more and also take the game to the opposition. They respect us a lot.”

Learning from the blow to qualify for continental cups

The defeat hurt twice as much because it ended a run of three straight wins, but Estigarribia stressed that the urgent thing now is to make the most of the experience. “What hurts me most is the poor first half we had. Those are the kinds of things I don’t want to see happen to us again because, if we want to fight near the top and qualify for continental cups, those are things that just can’t happen,” he said. To close, he admitted they could not figure the opponent out: “They had a good team and a good squad, but they weren’t coming in on a good run. We had to take advantage of that too, and we couldn’t. We didn’t know how to handle the ball in the first half, and we suffered.”

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.