Masterclass 2 min read

Diego Martínez

Diego Martínez
Photography by Pablo Blázquez
Author
Tony Hodson
Published on
December 20 2021

La Liga, August 17 2019

Villarreal 4Granada 4

Cazorla (10 pen)
Gómez (53)
Moreno (65)
Chukwueze (73)

Fede Vico (45+5 pen)
Peña (62 og)
Soldado (75)
Puertas (81)

Diego Martínez not only inspired Granada to promotion to La Liga, he oversaw their continued evolution to such an impressive extent he led them into European competition and the knockout stages of the Europa League. In the season that followed that promotion they finished seventh, and they did so because of their ability to adapt from being one of the very strongest teams in their division to being involved in another that was as competitive as it was ruthless.

Those lessons started as early as their first fixture of 2019/20, when they drew 4-4 with Villarreal, another team who once developed under a fine manager to such an extent they, too, unexpectedly made their mark in Europe. Speaking exclusively to The Coaches' Voice, Martínez revisits the way Granada recovered from two goals down against Santi Cazorla and more to secure a valuable point, and explains the four valuable lessons they had to learn to survive – ones that started that day, and that they continue to apply.

Starting line-ups
VillarrealGranada
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Villarreal4-2-3-1
Granada4-2-3-1
13Andrés Fernández
1Rui Silva
20Rubén Peña
16Víctor Díaz
3Raúl Albiol
22Domingos Duarte
4Pau Torres
6Germán Sánchez
16Xavi Quintillà
17Quini
19André-Frank Zambo Anguissa
19Ángel Montoro
8Santi Cazorla
8Yan Brice Eteki
11Samuel Chukwueze
10Antonio Puertas
10Vicente Iborra
14Fede Vico
23Moi Gómez
7Álvaro Vadillo
7Gerardo Moreno
9Roberto Soldado