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Martínez: "We are confident of our chances against Real Madrid"
The coach urges belief and focus for a tough LaLiga Matchday 25 contest
RCD Espanyol face Real Madrid away on Saturday (2pm CET) in LaLiga, and coach Diego Martínez talked to the media ahead of the trip to the Santiago Bernabeu.
"We must have conviction and believe in our possibilities of competing at our best, knowing that Real Madrid are a team of a different dimension," he told journalists on Friday.
"Anything can happen over the course of 90 minutes. In these types of matches you have to be at your best and the opponents have to have a bad day. With that as our foundation, we have to compete with the utmost conviction in what we need to do to be able to win."
Whilst the opposition have been experiencing a downturn in form, Martínez refused to contemplate Real Madrid being a weakened side.
“How many times do these teams have negative results? It will be tremendously difficult. These types of matches are special because of the opponents, because of what you have to do to be competitive and to not make mistakes that punish you, but we have to go into them with the conviction that we have the possibility of winning. It is a matter of everyone's mentality. We can win against any team, and likewise any team can beat us. We need to be at our best on all levels."
“There are no good or bad times. The game is a hugely demanding one. We are confident of our chances and the first step to playing a good game is believing that you can do it."
The coach reiterated that “the spirit that the team has had has been very high but, as always, we have to be very focused on both areas. I won't settle for anything before the game. What I want is to win. If in a normal game you have to minimise the margin of error, here it must be that minimum multiplied by one hundred. Hopefully we perform at our best."
Lastly, the coach had words of praise for the fans, who will travel to support the team at the Bernabéu.
“I have no words to thank them for all that they give us. Most importantly, the DNA of a club is in the passion the fans have. We will try to pay them back with our actions, not only tomorrow but the whole season."