Statements by Pellegrini
(Saturday’s match) “I’m only thinking about the next match against Levante at the moment, the most important game of the week. After Saturday we can see who’s in the best shape and performing well on the pitch. The evaluation of the match against Levante is so important, so we can start thinking about the Europa Cup on Sunday. We’re in a good League position, but need to get these three points from this home match. We’re all fully focused on the Levante match.”
(Match by match) "The team needs to be prepared to face any team throughout the year, as we’ve got a lot of games each week. The Champions League, then the Copa del Rey, means we’ve got a very full-on year ahead of us, so we need to get used to the heavy match schedule and concentrate on each match at a time.”
(Levante) "We can’t really say whether Levante are any better than last year, they’ve been near the top of the table for the past two years, as well as qualifying for the Europa League this year. Levante have got through the qualifying round this year too. They defeated Espanyol at home this year, so I think they’re going to be a tough rival.”
(Timetable) "The match kicks off at 4 p.m. on a Saturday, which probably isn’t the best time. However we played a League match a few weeks ago at 11 p.m. with a Champions match two days later. Now we’re just focusing on playing a good match tomorrow.”
