“Athletic is something special and has double merit”

Important match tomorrow against Sevilla!

Yes. It’s a season-long award. We know we’ve had downturns, but we’ve been pretty regular. We have had a good year and you can see why we are in the last game with options to be in European places.

Barca earrings?

Sure. We know that we don’t depend on us because Villarreal is one point higher; but we’ll play our game, get the three points and then we’ll see what happens.

Will Barça not be too relaxed?

In the end, you never know. I would say that all the teams, plus Barça being so great, have to always go out to win. Villarreal, of course, is a good team and can win there. The important thing is to defeat Sevilla ourselves.

A difficult rival.

Sevilla have a very large and competitive squad, they have shown it all season. Many players and very good.

Is it necessary to prepare in a special way for this type of match?

We are all looking forward to it. It’s like a final and we have to win it and we’re really looking forward to it. We don’t need extra motivation because we already know what we’re risking.

He says it’s a final, but finals aren’t usually good for Athletic lately.

We haven’t managed to win the last finals, it’s true, but we also did a good job in the Super Cup. We haven’t had that luck or known how to compete in those finals, but we’re having a great year.

Round of 16, Cup semi-final, Super Cup final…

It’s a great season. It still leaves you with a bit of a bittersweet feeling because you see yourself in a final and you can’t take it with you, reaching the semi-finals of the Cup after having eliminated Madrid and Barça and not the final… All that leaves you with a bittersweet taste, but you have to think cold and see what has been achieved, which I think is a lot.

Are people aware of the current level of LaLiga?

I don’t know. In the end, with home players you have to understand how they grow, you have to make them improve, you don’t go to the market and you can’t sign everything you want in the world. This is something special and that has a double merit. That 25 or 30 friends from Euskal Herria get together, achieve this level, this demand, and manage to always be there…