All about the next opponent: Interview with Celta de Vigo podcast Tenías Que Haber Tirado

Against Real Club Cel­ta de Vigo, VfB returns to the Euro­pa League. Befo­re the home match against the Gali­ci­ans, we spo­ke with Mar­cos and Lucas from the pod­cast Tení­as Que Haber Tira­do.

Rund um den Brust­ring: Thank you very much for taking the time to ans­wer our ques­ti­ons. Could you intro­du­ce your­sel­ves and your pod­cast to our rea­ders?

Tení­as Que Haber Tira­do: Hel­lo! The TQHT pod­cast covers the cur­rent situa­ti­on of Cel­ta, the reser­ve team, and the women’s team. We are the go-to media out­let for the new gene­ra­ti­on – even befo­re radio and news­pa­pers.

Last year, Cel­ta de Vigo finis­hed 7th in LaLi­ga and qua­li­fied for Euro­pean com­pe­ti­ti­on for the first time in nine years. How important was that for the fans and the club?

Qua­li­fy­ing for Euro­pe this year was some­thing very spe­cial for Cel­ta fans. In more than 100 years of club histo­ry, this has only hap­pen­ed for the tenth time. Sup­port­ers real­ly value the chan­ce to watch the team in inter­na­tio­nal com­pe­ti­ti­ons – espe­ci­al­ly with more home­grown Vigo play­ers in the squad than ever befo­re.

Your first match of this Euro­pa League sea­son takes you to Stutt­gart. The two teams alre­a­dy met in a pre­se­a­son fri­end­ly, but there’s also an offi­ci­al com­pe­ti­ti­ve clash: in the Round of 16 of the 2000/01 sea­son, Cel­ta de Vigo beat VfB Stutt­gart 2–1 at home after a 0–0 draw in Stutt­gart. Alek­san­dr Mos­to­voi scored the win­ning goal from what may have been an off­side posi­ti­on, if I recall cor­rect­ly. Do you remem­ber that last mee­ting with us?

We don’t, becau­se both Mar­cos and Lucas were born in 1999. Back then, we were still in dia­pers!

The last time you play­ed in the Euro­pa League was 2016/17 – and you rea­ched the semi­fi­nals. How do you remem­ber your big­gest suc­cess in Euro­pe?

The end of that Euro­pa League sea­son was tra­gic. In the final moments of the match, Cel­ta had the chan­ce to knock out Man­ches­ter United at Old Traf­ford. The play bet­ween Gui­det­ti and Beau­vue was dra­ma­tic – but in the end, no shot on goal came from it. That’s why our name is Tení­as Que Haber Tira­do (“You should have shot”).

It’s been almost 25 years sin­ce our last encoun­ter. Plea­se tell us some­thing inte­res­t­ing about Real Club Cel­ta de Vigo that can’t be found on Wiki­pe­dia.

It’s hard to tell you some­thing that isn’t on Wiki­pe­dia, but we’ll try: one of the most important stands at Balaí­dos sta­di­um is cal­led “Río.” The reason is that the Lag­ares River runs beneath the sta­di­um and, during hea­vy rain in win­ter, it floods and covers the pitch. With the latest reno­va­tions, the goal is to pre­vent the­se floods.

What has your club done in this trans­fer win­dow, and how satis­fied are you with the squad?

Both expen­da­ble and important play­ers have left Clau­dio Giráldez’s team (Alfon to Sevil­la and Fer López to the Pre­mier League). As a repla­ce­ment for Alfon, Bryan Zara­go­za came in – the star sig­ning of this sea­son. But no repla­ce­ment was signed for Fer López, one of Vigo’s most pro­mi­sing youth play­ers of the last deca­de.

Cel­ta de Vigo lost their first match against Geta­fe and then drew 1–1 five times in a row. What hap­pen­ed?

Cel­ta is strugg­ling at the start of the sea­son becau­se the team lacks goals. But they regu­lar­ly crea­te chan­ces. Out of the five draws, only two were real­ly deser­ved. In the other three games, the team should have won all three points. Over­all, the impres­si­ons are posi­ti­ve.

What are your goals for the sea­son, and do you belie­ve the club can achie­ve them?

The first goal is to avo­id rele­ga­ti­on trou­ble and secu­re our place in LaLi­ga. From the­re, the aim is to go as far as pos­si­ble in the Copa del Rey and Euro­pa League.

Your top scorer right now is Bor­ja Igle­si­as, who was on loan at Lever­ku­sen in 2024 and won the league the­re. He was repor­ted­ly also on VfB’s radar after­ward. Tell us what we missed out on.

A stri­ker who is very strong with his back to goal, under­stands the coll­ec­ti­ve well, and after a dif­fi­cult spell has now found his ide­al place in Vigo to redis­co­ver his best form.

Who else should we keep a clo­se eye on?

Iago Aspas, at 38 years old, remains the foot­bal­ling and spi­ri­tu­al lea­der of the team. Among the les­ser-known play­ers, Javi Rueda has had a furious start to the sea­son, and Hugo Sote­lo is curr­ent­ly per­forming at a very high level.

How satis­fied are you with coach Clau­dio Girál­dez, and what style of play does he use?

The fans are deligh­ted with Clau­dio Girál­dez – he is the best Cel­ta coach of the last eight years.

I saw dis­cus­sions on Twit­ter about Vil­lar­re­al fans away at Tot­ten­ham and about Spa­nish fan cul­tu­re in gene­ral. What can we expect on Thurs­day from the Cel­ta de Vigo sup­port­ers?

Around 1,300 Cel­tis­tas will tra­vel to Stutt­gart.

Who is miss­ing from the squad for the game?

We don’t know the squad list yet, but Mar­cos Alon­so, Swed­berg, Mihai­lo Ristic, and Ser­gio Car­rera are strugg­ling with inju­ries.

What’s your pre­dic­tion for the start­ing XI and the result?

Start­ing XI:
Radu
Javi Rueda / Javi Rodrí­guez / Star­felt / Car­los Domín­guez / Min­gue­za
Ilaix / Sote­lo
Iago Aspas / Jut­glá / Durán

Our pre­dic­tion: 1–1 – the result Cel­ta has recor­ded most often this past month.

Thank you!

Pic­tu­re: © Octa­vio Passos/Getty Images