Pellegrini’s statements:
Málaga-Sevilla
“It’s a ‘clasico’ that’s always played with lots of intensity. Playing against a main rival is what gives it this intensity, regardless of where we are. We’re playing against a big rival but we have a lot of confidence that we’ll keep the three points at home and we’re going out in search of them from the outset. The team are aware of the patch that we’re in, a negative one in terms of points, but they’re in high spirits and working week by week, the last thing that this team lacks is drive. We’re all part of a club in which we want to be in the highest positions and we’re going all out to get there.”
Toulalan / Medel
“Toulalan has made an important contribution for us, perhaps for the few times that he's played Camacho has not been at Toulalan’s high level all year, therefore it’s an important return to the team. Gary Medel is a great player who has done very well at Sevilla, a great temperament off the pitch, and I’m very happy for him.”
Experience/Serenity
“Whoever doesn’t win will have another 18 matches to reach their objectives. Neither of the two, with such narrow positions on the table, can afford not to fight and I’m not one for giving up until the very last moment, and luckily, so far things have gone pretty well. After 23 years in the profession, I’m relaxed about this patch, working hard throughout the week without giving any soundbytes. Experience is important and the path we’re on is the correct one. The situation last year was totally different to this year; we’re going to close this three and a half year contract with Málaga in the advanced position we’d hoped for.”
Fans
“In this match and those before and those in the future, I don’t see any disunity between the Club and the fans. For us it’ll be the most important thing to dedicate a win tomorrow to the fans. Between all of us we’re going to move this forward and hopefully be happy at the end of the year.”
Winter transfer market
“95 per cent of things that come out about Málaga players aren’t true, we’re not bringing in anyone else, but at the beginning of the year we were undecided about bringing in another goalkeeper and in came Carlos Kameni.”
The state of football
“We know Sevilla’s strengths, the tactics are the things they don’t give away and then there are the nuances that get them results. We’re not looking for excuses nor to the past, instead we we’re looking to come together in spirit, football and physically ,and that way we’ll snatch victory as we’ve done before. There’ve been different line-ups in this last month, we had the Copa del Rey against Real Madrid and we made a series of changes, and we’ll now see how the team come out tomorrow.”