Garitano: “Espanyol needs to win, but so do we”

Just a day and a half after the return from Elche due to the Cup commitment, Athletic Club travels this afternoon to Barcelona, where tomorrow (1.00pm) it will face RCD Espanyol in the match corresponding to the matchweek 21 of LaLiga Santander. The red-and-white team has worked out for the last time in Lezama at midday today. After that, Gaizka Garitano has offered the call up of 19 players for the match and he has appeared before the media.

The coach didn’t want to make any assessment about the cup draw of the round of sixteen – “We have our head set only on the match against Espanyol because it is a vital match for us” – and he underlined the importance of the recovery of his players after the effort of Wednesday in Elche: “We have to try to recover the team in these few hours that we have left and, at the same time, through the video and the tactics, prepare tomorrow’s match.”

Garitano analysed the opponents who are waiting for Athletic in Cornellá: “They are dangerous and even more so when you look at the signings they have made, in which they have invested a lot of money, and which are going to raise the level of a team that entered the Europa League last year. With Abelardo they are a very organised team, with a 4-4-2 formation that is difficult to get into. They are physical, but they also have the quality of Melendo or Darder and now the goal that Raúl de Tomás brings them up.”

For the red-and-white coach , “the rivals are even more difficult when they come with needs, but we need to win like Espanyol, because we want to get the three points again. Although we have to play on the fields of Betis, Madrid or Sevilla, where many teams don’t win, we didn’t win outside since the match against Osasuna and we already have this need.”