Raúl García: “We can retain the Supercopa trophy”

Athletic Club forward Raúl García is confident the Lions’ have what it takes to successfully defend their Spanish Super Cup trophy.

Los Rojiblancos, who beat FC Barcelona to win the competition last year, kick off this year’s edition with a semi-final against Atlético Madrid at the King Fahd Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Thursday night (20:00 CET). Real Madrid take on FC Barcelona in the other semi-final at the same time on Wednesday night.

“The history of this club means we always go out with the mentality of competing and winning games,” Raúl said at a press conference on Monday afternoon.

“And in this competition, it will be no different. It won’t be easy, but we have the will, the ambition and the belief we can retain the trophy.”

To have a chance of winning the Supercopa again, Athletic will have to overcome Raúl’s former club, reigning LaLiga Santander champions Atlético Madrid.

“The Supercopa is truly difficult to win. We’re going up against the best teams from last season and we all know how tough it is to play Atlético Madrid,” Raúl said.

“Nevertheless, we’ve done it once before and we’re fully confident we can repeat the feat.”

Athletic are going into the competition off the back of a 0-0 draw with Alavés on Sunday night. While Raúl admitted they would have preferred to win, he has no doubt squad morale is in the right place ahead of the trip to Saudi Arabia.

“Like with every match, we wanted to win,” he added about Sunday’s draw in LaLiga Santander. “We controlled the game, but we lacked the ability to create more chances and be more clinical in front of goal.

“We’re aware that in today’s football it’s difficult to get the three points. However, the team’s confidence remains the same.

“We believe we’re doing things right, we’re on the up and we’re becoming more consistent in our play. We’re feeling good going into this competition.”

The centre-forward also believes winning the Supercopa is a good opportunity to fully recover from the last two final defeats, saying: “Despite the fact we lost them, we reached two finals.

“Obviously we wanted to win, but those kinds of experiences make you mature. There are many setbacks in football and you have to know how to deal with them.

“That being said, our aim from Thursday onwards is to win the Supercopa, and with that, make the Club and the Athletic fans happy.”