MADRID, 21 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Granada coach, Alexander Medina, has assured that they must “play to the limit” and “at 120%” of their possibilities against Atlético de Madrid, “one of the best teams in Spain and perhaps in Europe” and who is face this Monday in Nuevo Los Cármenes (9:00 p.m.), and has appealed to focus on “work” and not only on “mathematics” to achieve permanence.
“Regardless of the rival we have in front of us, we have a lot of confidence in our team, knowing that we are going to face one of the best teams in Spain and perhaps in Europe. We have reasons to get a positive result, making a good game plan , understanding that we have to play to the limit, to 120% of our possibilities, with our fans. I have no doubt that we are going to be up to the task of the game,” he declared at a press conference.
In this sense, he insisted on the importance of “playing with a regular intensity for the ninety-odd minutes that the match lasts.” “This is how the rival does it and we cannot be less. We plan for the rival's strengths, patterns they have in attack, which makes them a team with many variants,” he said.
“He has enormous potential in attack, he has scored seven goals against Real Madrid in two games. We must add goal situations that allow us to win the game. We have to be an intense, short and compact team, with a lot of aggressiveness on the defensive side and have good positioning when playing,” he continued.
Furthermore, he does not believe that Diego Pablo Simeone's men will be affected by the two overtimes played against Real Madrid in the Super Cup and the Copa del Rey. “The matches were intense, but they had more than a week to recover. They have a squad with a very important hierarchy to be able to count on any player in any rotation. We are concerned with our team, knowing the characteristics of the rival team,” he warned.
In another vein, the Uruguayan coach assured that “the spirit is very good” despite the team losing its last game against Real Betis (1-0). “We came out stronger, beyond the result, the other day against Betis, because we understood that we played a good game: we competed until the end, due to different situations we were not able to add, but we were very close to doing so. The team did merits to achieve it. We have to stay with the positive things that the team did,” he said.
Regarding how many points the Nasrid team will need to stay in LaLiga EA Sports, five points from the safety zone, Medina insisted that they should not focus only on permanence, but on improving every day. “I have not been good at mathematics, since I was a child. What I have to try to focus on is teamwork, continuing to grow, it is the only way we will have the opportunity to stay in the First Division. I see evolution and there is “We have to continue growing, be closer to victory. Stopping at how many points we need is doing futurology. We have to work as a team and be much more regular,” he stressed.
Finally, he assessed the sanction of Martin Hongla. “The sanction was a bit exorbitant from what the minutes reflect. There has to be self-criticism on our part so that this does not happen again. It is a significant loss, but with the players we have at our disposal we are going to compete in the same way “he concluded.