Dani García: "Wednesday's match against Espanyol is like a final"

Athletic Club midfielder Dani García reiterated his belief that Los Leones are always strong contenders when it comes to lifting the Copa del Rey.

Los Rojiblancos host RCD Espanyol at San Mamés in the Copa round of 16 on Wednesday night (21:00 CET). It is a competition the Lions hold in high esteem having won it a total of 25 times in their history.

"It's a very important game in a competition which we've gone close to winning over the last three years," Dani said at a pre-match press conference on Monday morning.

"It's special and we want to win it. The game at San Mamés is vital and luckily we'll have the fans with us."

The midfielder also thanked the fans for "the effort they make to always be with us. We want to win this match for them". He continued: "We're already over the derby defeat and are now focused on this Copa round-of-16 clash."

Asked about the opponents, Dani García warned that Espanyol "have many forwards capable of scoring goals".

He said: "I suppose it will be a game in which we'll carry the weight of the match. They're strong defensively and they'll probably drop back to counter-attack. We'll have to be very effective in possession and avoid making mistakes.

"As it's a one-off game, I don't think it will be like the one we played in LaLiga."

Athletic are yet to win in LaLiga since their return to action, but Dani stressed that performances and work-rate on display mean there is no reason to worry yet.

"The match at the Reale Arena was very hard fought and, although they had possession of the ball, they didn't create trouble us until we made two mistakes," he added.

"It's true we haven't had good results recently, but we're doing well and we're still in the top positions [in the league]. I think we played well [in the draws] against Real Betis and CA Osasuna and deserved to take all three points. I think we're still in good form."