Imanol: “All we think about is winning”

The coach of Real Sociedad, Imanol Bailiffhas no doubts about classifying this Saturday’s derby at San Mamés as one of the decisive matches for his team this season, given the morale boost that victory at home to his rival would provide, although not he sees it as final.

“If we win tomorrow, there are nine games left and after beating Athletic… If it’s not the final, it’s a very important game for us and because it’s a derby, there are no predictions, but I want to have 54 points. when the game is over”, he emphasized Sheriff in his previous press conference this Friday in Zubieta.

He did remember the 4-0 Biscayan team endorsed their squad last season, though Sheriff He did not seem to retain many memories of that match played over a year ago and explained that in his memory was “the Cup final with 1-0 or the game in the first round that we won (3-1 )”. He admitted that in this type of match “it doesn’t matter what position you are in or what you have done before because every derby is different.”

When asked which team was the favorite for this Saturday’s match, he joked to avoid ending up in swampland: “When I left the house this morning at 7.30am my wife, who knows me very well, told me :’imanolno headlines!'”

“The derby is difficult to predict but the home team is always the favorite, especially now that few tickets are sent to the visitors and an important atmosphere is always generated in their stadium,” he added. He did not discount a rival who appreciated “their great ability to do things in their field, press hard and when they are in a good moment it is a very big team and there are few rivals who can hurt them”.

“We have to control the areas because they have a very complete team and it is difficult to stop them. With Ernesto They have improved a lot, they have overflowed, speed…”, said the coach of Oriotarra in his analysis of the rival rojiblanco.