Arda Turan acknowledged the difficulty of the Cup game "Although it will be difficult, we have advantages and we want to use them. Against Athletic it will be very complicated, they play very well in their field and we will have to defend very well to achieve qualification." The Turkish midfielders stressed that squad remember "many victories, but it does not matter because they are a strong team and it will be a competitive game."

Regarding the league match against Rayo, he said the main conclusion is that "we are a team and played as such was very important to us because we have shown that we are united." At the individual level, for Arda "scoring does not matter, most important is to win together."

Finally, the player said "we defended as a team, we could be much better, but we need to improve. We will evolve our strength if we do get through this tie, but we know it will be difficult," and concluded that "being leader is not achieved by individuals."