“A lot of respect to the rival, but this team is not coming to tie, it wants to win, so there’s no doubt about it.” Imanol Alguacil He was unhappy with a draw that would have been good for his team against Benfica. That was the first strategy, then “the party will put us in our place.”
The coach does not feel tension or pressure on such a big stage: “I’m enjoying, enjoying this moment, seeing so many media from there and here, it means that we are facing a great team, a Champions League match. And here it is our Royal Society”.
For him, on a personal level, it means a lot to “manage Real with many players with whom I have lived for eight years, since youth, I have met their girlfriends, who are now their wives, and their children. .” He did not hide that it represented a great emotion. “You can imagine what I can feel. It’s something big. If they told us four years ago that we were going here, with the possibility of continuing to be leaders against Benfica, we wouldn’t have believed it.”
We have to play the “good game”
In his opinion, “we have to play a good game at all levels” to beat Benfica. Despite having zero in his points box, he remembers that “he has players of a lot of quality and experience” and that it is a “big team” that plays in the Champions League “every year”.
La Real approaches this third group match with a lot of “respect and humility”, but with the “intention to win” and for that “we have to give our best version”. The San Sebastian coach doesn’t want to reveal his plans for the match “so as not to give clues to the rival.” Also, he maintains that “the blackboard holds everything, but then there’s the green.”
When Imanol When asked what the match meant to him, he said “you won’t believe me, but all matches are very important. It was also important against Mallorca. Playing a match with this shirt is the biggest thing there is. The focus of Champion, Benfica and Lisbon, maybe even bigger if possible. But I don’t care who is in front of me. That’s what I tried to convey to the players, and maybe that’s why I’m still here after four years; they let themselves into life in every game and you saw it in Cazalegas”.
Imanol He also said that he would prefer that Di María, “a good football” doubter, be on the pitch tomorrow: “He is a very important player who has done a lot for football: a lot of respect, no fear.”
He wants to dedicate it to 3,500
Logically, the coach wanted to dedicate the victory to the 3,500 Real fans traveling to Lisbon: “Let them enjoy. We must enjoy these moments. We will give our lives so that this will be a day to remember and so that the home is even happier. Thanking them, it shows when they are with us. It’s also a credit to the team, because what they’ve shown in recent years is impressive.”
Source: La Verdad
I am Shawn Partain, a journalist and content creator working for the Today Times Live. I specialize in sports journalism, writing articles that cover major sporting events and news stories. With a passion for storytelling and an eye for detail, I strive to be accurate and insightful in my work.
