<\/p>\n
Rayo Vallecano manager Inigo Perez cut an emotional figure as he walked into his press conference following their 1-0 Conference League final loss to Crystal Palace<\/a>, and walked out to a round of applause. The side from Vallecas came up short, but Perez admitted that he was left with a mix of sadness and frustration thereafter.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are difficult times for everyone. We just have to get through it however we can,\u201d he said, unable to find words of consolation for the defeat. That\u2019s just how it goes when you lose. Especially when you came so close. What breaks you inside is seeing people cry. It absolutely destroys you. You feel that sadness and frustration of defeat, of the explosion of happiness that winning it would have meant, and it leaves you frustrated.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite their defeat, Rayo Vallecano fans unveiled a banner stating The greatest victory, was being with you in defeat\u00a0<\/em>after the final whistle, and were doing their best to pick their players up after the game.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is pain, frustration, sadness. At how it escaped us. Obviously, it\u2019s not a nice situation. In such a delicate moment, when you lose, it\u2019s frustration, when you win its happiness. What destroys you is when you see people crying. It hurts you. They\u2019re crying out of emotion. And yet they\u2019re the ones that demand that you pick yourself up, that are supporting you.\u201d<\/p>\n “Never knew a better victory, than being with you in defeat.”<\/p>\n Rayo Vallecano, a fanbase that remains unbeaten. pic.twitter.com\/OfoiqWrGhn<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Ruairidh Barlow (@RuriBarlow) May 27, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Perez rejected the notion that the defeat was a missed opportunity to vindicate their way of doing things, and the spirit of Vallecas.<\/p>\n \u201cWe lost a game of football. We didn\u2019t lose an opportunity to show ourselves. It wasn\u2019t a day to show what we\u2019re about, it was a day to celebrate or to cry. The authentic side of ourselves is in the day-to-day stuff. You can come by the neighbourhood, and you can see for yourselves any day you want. That\u2019s where you see what the people are and what Vallecas is made of.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe fans are the driving force behind this team surviving, and behind this dream<\/a> that we\u2019ve been living in, and they\u2019re the reason that we break down when we went over to them. We normally try to be balanced when we win or lose, but in this situation, it\u2019s impossible to remain in one piece.\u201d<\/p>\n Regardless of the emotional difficulty, Perez had wavered little if they took from the final a pride in their fans.<\/p>\n \u201cAlways. That will be eternal. You don\u2019t have words. These are delicate moments to go through. At Rayo<\/a> there is an acceptance of the suffering, and from there we overcome a lot of problems, even if it\u2019s difficult. I\u2019m proud of the players, the fans, the neighbourhood.\u201d<\/p>\n \n In terms of where the game was won and lost, the Rayo manager was gracious in defeat, and praised his side for getting back into the game after conceding.<\/p>\n \u201c\u201dIt was not the game that imagined, that we all had in our heads. But I prefer to think that it wasn\u2019t down to us, but it was down to them being better. They\u2019re deserved winners. The first half was a bit of a feeling-out process. Neither side wanted to make a mistake. But that goal, coming from an isolated play, really impacted us.\u00a0 We went through some very dangerous moments, but we managed to bounce back. It wasn\u2019t brilliant, perhaps, but we shook off that feeling of not quite being ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey were more comfortable, they got into the game better. Then they had that moment where they scored, and they had a good couple of chances. But we held out, we didn\u2019t fall apart, albeit when did so we didn\u2019t shine, and not in the way we usually do.\u201d<\/p>\n In a relatively even game outside of that ten minutes of Palace dominance, Perez was not surprised by anything Rayo had to face.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t see anything that we hadn\u2019t already seen. Both teams were practically naked, and both teams can draw the body of the other. I don\u2019t think our lack of experience was decisive. There were specific moments that were.\u201d<\/p>\n \n Despite their defeat and struggles to to damage to Palace, Perez found no flaw in their ambition.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was already difficult to improve on this year. Ambition isn\u2019t measured in a press conference with words, and these players have more than enough ambition. Let\u2019s hope they can continue showing it.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the talking points that he avoided was his future, twice refusing to get into it, and also denying any fatigue from the season.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard to find a group of players like this one. This group is truly special. They are genuine friends who respect and love one another. They help each other out. They protect and encourage one another. If I have to lose, I\u2019d rather lose alongside these guys.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt wouldn\u2019t be appropriate to talk about that [my future] right now. It wouldn\u2019t be fair.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The post Inigo Perez after Rayo Vallecano Conference League final loss: “Seeing the tears destroys you inside”<\/a> appeared first on Football Espa\u00f1a<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rayo Vallecano manager Inigo Perez cut an emotional figure as he walked into his press conference following their 1-0 Conference League final loss…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6615"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6616,"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6615\/revisions\/6616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u201cThe fans are the driving force behind this team and the reason we broke down\u201d<\/h2>\n
\n
Inigo Perez: Palace were better, they deserved it<\/h2>\n
Perez not speaking about future<\/h3>\n