Albert Celades gave a press conference at the Reino de León after Valencia CF edged past Cultural Leonesa on penalties, and he had some praise for both his players and the Segunda B team who pushed them to the limit.

Cultural Leonesa
“It was a typical Copa del Rey game against opposition who had enjoyed great games against Huesca and Atletico Madrid. It was a very entertaining, beautiful game, but I think that we were the better side and could have got through sooner. In the end it went to penalties, and we go home having gone through to the next round."

The team's performance
"You have to take into account the difficulty of playing on a pitch like this. It was muddy and you couldn't move the ball around normally. I'm very proud of how the players adapted to a difficult game. They made a great effort and had a great mentality to get through the match. It isn't at all easy here and teams are struggling to win -Athletic were the same yesterday in their match. You only have to look at who has been eliminated from the Copa del Rey. I feel very proud of the effort made by the players."

Excessive fouls from Cultural Leonesa

"It's true that there were a lot of interruptions and a lot of fouls, especially on Dani Parejo. They didn't want us to have continuity in our play. I think that the referee could have shown some more cards, but you can't say more than that."

Penalty shootouts
"We hadn't practices penalties as such, but in training the players stay behind to shoot penalties and free kicks. That's why they are used to the situation."