Yeray: “You all have to come out”

Athletic face the first of their last ten league games on Saturday. The rojiblancos host Real with a single goal, extending their league streak of three games without defeat, with two victories over Valladolid and Espanyol and a draw at Getafe. The txuri urdin team is fourth in the First Division standings with 51 points, eleven more than the rojiblancos, although in this type of clash of maximum rivalry the standings are usually less important and play the most at home.

Yeray now appealed to the San Mamés factor to promote the game. “Any game in the League, against any team, is complicated. Everyone has their weapons, their game, their style. La Real is having a very good season and has been there all season. We know how difficult it is to play against this kind of team, we have worked hard for that derby in San Mamés, everyone has to come out super prepared, super motivated, so we want to continue our good run from the points in the League,” he said.

The centre-back was sent off with a straight red card for a tackle Take Kubo at the appointment played at Anoeta. The native of Barakaldo pointed out in an interview with Mundo Deportivo that it did not even touch him and therefore the decision was made by Cuadra Fernandez it is completely unfair. The defender is not taking this fight as revenge: “Forget about that, it’s obviously the first dismissal in my career. I’ve already said that it seems unfair to me, but Saturday is another completely different game. It’s here at home, with our Guys, you have to come out very motivated, we will have everyone’s support and in the end that support adds almost another player”.

The rojiblanco team boosted their spirits last Saturday with a convincing victory at the RCDE Stadium in Cornellà after the stick suffered against Osasuna just four days before the second leg of the Cup semifinal. “We know the match will be difficult. They They need and we need the three points to continue in Europe after the blow we suffered in the Cup. We know it will cost us, that morale may not be one hundred percent, but the team knew how to adapt, turn it around. It was complicated. It was a pretty good game, the pressure, the game, the desire… We knew how to turn the situation around and super happy with the result”, he pointed out.

Probably Valverde and its coaching staff, with an important role for the psychologist Jose Carrascosathey had to do important work from a mental point of view with a very short margin to visit the Spaniard: “We talked to the coach. The best thing to return what happened, which was very difficult, is to be all. united, all together- together and working for a few days on the weekend match. From the first moment we understood it all, we caught it very quickly. It was already seen in the first training session that the team is united, that the most important thing is to get the three points to fight the places we wanted to go. We got the result we wanted”.

The board of directors, the coaching staff and the players set a European goal at the start of the season. Now Athletic are seventh, seven points from fifth place and five from sixth. Yes it points to ‘match by match’ which is older than football. “There are several points at stake. Our mentality and goal is the same at the beginning of the season, to be as high as possible in the table. We will not set ourselves a goal like fifth, sixth or seventh place because every game is a world and the results of other teams also influence. Our mentality should be to get three points each. Then we will be better or worse, but the goal is to finish the highest possible”, he said.

The calendar is quite complicated. In addition to the derby against txuri urdin, Athletic have to face, among others, Villarreal, Betis, Osasuna and Real Madrid. Yes insists on looking in the short term: “Each game is a world, the teams at the bottom play often and those at the top want to enter Europe. Everyone has their fight. All the games will be it’s difficult, whatever their opponent is. It won’t be different because we’re higher or lower. We have to go every game to get as many points as possible.”