“We are expecting Athletic to put in the reliable performance usually given at San Mamés”

Before Athletic Club’s last training session and the following call-up for tomorrow’s clash with Real Valladolid (San Mamés, Sunday 6:30 p.m.), the red-and-white manager, Gaizka Garitano, has talked to the media in a pre-match press conference. Garitano, who has confirmed Ibai’s and Yuri’s injury absences, has preferred not to talk about future goals and centered his speech on the contest against Valladolid: “Winning the game tomorrow is the most ambitious aim we can set ourselves right now”.

According to the red-and-white manager, “Valladolid are a team capable of closing up at the back really well, but they are also fast and have good counter-attack quality. They can play well the ball with people such as Oscar Plano and Michel. They are a team that have improved a lot, and they almost seem to play more comfortably when being far from home”.

Garitano expects the effort put during this fifteen-day league break -taken after two defeats, with no goals registered in those matches against Valencia and Celta-, gives a positive result: “We have insisted repeatedly on the offensive aspect these two weeks, it is in the third part of the pitch where we are struggling the most: in the crosses, shooting on target, getting players forward as well as with the moves in those last few meters. Let’s see if we have good luck when it comes to scoring tomorrow”.