Valverde: "We've a lot left to fight for this season"

Ernesto Valverde said Athletic Club need to put Thursday's Copa defeat to CA Osasuna behind them and focus on what's ahead, reiterating that Los Leones are still going well in LaLiga and the Europa League.

The Zurigorri players have a first chance to turn the page when they face Celta Vigo at the Estadio Abanca Balaidos on Sunday afternoon at 14:00 CET.

"The team is doing fine. There's a lot of things left to fight for this season," Valverde said at his pre-match press conference.

"We're fouth in LaLiga and the aim is to stay up there. When you lose a match you have to pick yourself up quickly and that's what we'll try to do."

Asked about Athletic's defeat to FC Barcelona in the Supercopa and to Osasuna in the Copa, Valverde said both matches were close but the Lions "weren't clinical enough".

He continued: "We lost, but we weren't far off our opponents in either match, and we could've won either one of them. That's important.

"There wasn't anything too different about how we played. We played our usual game, but we weren't clinical enough"

The gaffer said his side will need to "dig deep" to come back from Vigo with a positive result, pointing to Celta's decent home form.

"Celta are strong at home. That's where they've collected most of their points," he said.

"They combine well and create a lot of attacks, so we'll need to dig deep to get something from the match.

"It's important to keep accumulating points because we're getting to the part of the season where you start counting how many matches you have left."