Athletic is going to meet an old acquaintance tomorrow at the Nuevo Los Cármenes de Granada. Aitor Karanka He is the coach of the Nasrid team since last April 18 he took over from Ruben Torrecilla, who was the coach chosen on an interim basis for five games to replace Robert Moreno. He is his third coach of the season.
In this period, the man from Gasteiz has not yet lost and receives the lions with the rush of 2-6 achieved on Saturday in Son Moix with an exhibition of Jorge Molina. The 40-year-old veteran striker scored two goals and gave two assists to achieve the most spectacular victory of his team in the 2021-22 League.
The rival of the lions tomorrow in Los Cármenes comes from achieving a great victory in Mallorca (2-6)
Karanka He added a meritorious draw against Atlético de Madrid at the Wanda Metropolitano (0-0) in his first game in charge of the Nasrids and on the following day he also drew with Celta at home (1-1). The Gasteiz player took over the bench with the team fourth from bottom with relegation points (29), the same as the Mexican’s Mallorca Javier Aguirre. Now he occupies the same position, but he has left the red zone marked by the vermilion team two points with three games left to play. In addition to receiving the lions, they will play in the next matchday at Betis’ home and will close the regularity tournament on their field against Espanyol.
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Granada is the second worst team at home with 18 units added in 17 games. Only Cádiz worsens these numbers (17). The lions’ next rival has four wins at home (Sevilla, Atlético, Alavés and Mallorca), six draws (Valencia, Getafe, Barça, Cádiz, Rayo and Celta) and seven losses (Betis, Real Sociedad, Real Madrid, Osasuna , Villarreal, Elche and Levante).
It is the first experience of the former Athletic player as head coach in the League after being assistant to Mourinho at Real Madrid between 2010 and 2013. Later, he continued his career in England, as the main manager of Birmingham, Nottingham Forest and Middlesbrough, with whom he achieved promotion to the Premier League.
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Karanka, 48, was a lion for eight seasons in two different periods (1993-04/1996-97 and 2002-03/2005-06) in which he played a total of 202 official commitments with four goals to his credit. In between, he was a Real Madrid footballer.
Tomorrow he will meet his former team for the first time as the manager of a LaLiga team. Possibly, there is little time for sentimentality because permanence in the highest category and Athletic, a European place, are at stake.
