Diego Martínez: “It is always exciting to analyze Marcelino's teams”

Last devastating medical report with 12 injured. “We will try to hurry until the last moment. That is our reality. Quini was able to do some training with the team. The rest of us will wait. They have been dragging quite a bit of annoyances. Next Thursday (against Molde) there will be players who cannot be due to suspension (Montoro, Yangel and Germán). We will make the most suitable combination possible to win tomorrow's match and not compromise our physical condition for the next match. It has been a week to recover ”.

Athletic. Marcelino has given him packaging. “First of all, congratulations from here to Athletic, not only for their Super Cup title but also for their passage to the Cup final two years in a row, which has a lot of merit. You have to recognize him and congratulate him because that speaks of his entity as a team. It would not be fair to enter into comparisons but we are talking about Marcelino García Toral, who is one of the best Spanish coaches. It is always exciting to analyze your teams because in each game, the one who likes soccer can learn many details. The state of trust for the title they got and for how they got it and the Cádiz game, from a short time ago, seems brilliant and at a very high level. It is a team with great confidence and very organized, with rhythm and intensity, the quality that it has always had. That plus and that confidence that the good results give you and the nuances that Marcelino has been able to incorporate make him a rival and a very demanding match ”.

One year of the Cup semifinal against Athletic with Los Carmines full of people. “Who was going to tell us that we would be a year without an audience and with all the things that have happened to us with the pandemic and confinement? But also, who was going to tell us that we would be in a round of 16 of the Europa League, quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey. You don't have to go any further, to matchday one of the League. Everyone asked me why we would be a relegation candidate because of what had happened to other teams that came to Europe in previous years. And if they tell us that we would be like now, with 33 points in the league, and with all the wonderful emotions that this team has made us live, we would all sign it. It is an extraordinary moment. We would like the fans to have been with us. The fans, although they have not been in person, have been from the heart and that is the important thing ”.

Available. Eteki as a midfielder. “I never give lineups before the game. My players are the first to know. We will hurry to the end and we will see what happens ”.

Accumulated fatigue Will Athletic accuse fatigue after his beat in the Cup. “And with the 41 games behind. Really. I think we have a very demanding season. It is true that this week we have not had a game but it is not that it was necessary, it was urgent to be able to recover. I would like to have as many players as possible. It is also true that it is at nine at night and in this sense it is a little better because it is not the same as doing it at two or four in the afternoon. Hopefully the fatigue factor, which was not decisive to win at Elche, is not decisive in order to play a good game and win in Bilbao ”.

Winter market. Left side. Victor Diaz. Adrian Marin. “We will see tomorrow to see how we are. We never do individual evaluations. We always get the best eleven to win the game. Regardless of what we do, we have another game on Thursday, another Sunday, another on Thursday, another on Sunday… we will solve it as a group ”:

The UEFA fine. “I wanted to comment on one thing since there has been an allusion these days to Granada Club de Fútbol. I was surprised by the news and wanted to argue my point of view. We have been sanctioned by UEFA. It catches my attention because I think it is a very normal thing, very common. The yellow cards in Naples, five for Naples, six for Granada, in the first leg five for Naples and five for Granada. I think everyone knows that any disciplinary sanction is accompanied by an economic fine both in Europe, in the Spanish League and in a cadet game. That is why it is something very normal. It is true that we are late in the second part. It was not even conscious because we understood that the talk of the break, relocating the team and preparing ourselves mentally for the second half was much more important than delaying a minute or two. They sanctioned us just like they sanctioned on January 31, 2020 in that same stadium a Naples-Barcelona sanctioned both teams for delaying the start of the match. Remember, for those who do not know, that from the dressing room to the field there is a long access because you have to cross some athletic tracks. But curiously, the two teams were sanctioned for starting the game late and their respective coaches were also warned ”.

The celebration photo at Maradona for which there was also a UEFA fine. “The historical photo is what surprises me the most of all. It is a priceless photo. A photo that will remain in the history of Granada and it is a photo that any team that goes to the round of 16 would take and celebrate with their team. I think PSV did it in our field when we both qualified for the group stage. The only thing I regret about that photo is that not all the players were there because some were not allowed to go down because of the protocols. But there were all the team leaders, CEO, general manager, area managers, enjoying a unique moment with all the players. So much so that many of them have uploaded it to their social networks. A unique and historical situation. We haven't done anything that just any team wouldn't. From there, proud of the team and of that photo. I just wanted to argue what my point of view was ”.