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MADRID, June 2-- Spanish Liga Santander club Leganes on Saturday confirmed Mauricio Pellegrino as their first team coach for the 2018-19 season. Pellegrino replaces Asier Garitano who at the end of the season left Leganes after five successful campaigns during which he guided them from the third tier of Spanish football to the Liga Santander and kept them in the top flight for the last two years. Leganes will be Pellegrino’s third club in Spain after an unsuccessful spell at Valencia (where he had also been a player) and an excellent season with Alaves in 2016-17, which saw him steer the newly promoted club to Liga Santander safety and a place in the Copa del Rey final against Barcelona. Pellegrino joined English side, Southampton last summer, but the move did not work out and he was sacked before the end of the campaign as the club battled to avoid relegation. Last season saw Leganes finish fourth from bottom of the table, but they were 14 points clear of relegation and also reached the semifinal of the Cup after knocking Real Madrid out of the quarter-finals. | 
