Enrique Cerezo: “Atlético will be in a European competition next year”
“There are still enough points to make Champions, and while there’s life there’s hope”
Enrique Cerezo, President of Club Atlético de Madrid, atended to the media present in the Atlético Foundation event, “Surgery in Turkana”, within the “A Team for the World” project.
The European outlook for Atlético seems different after their victory in Pamplona against Osasuna. Cerezo stated that “everything improved. I think that we still have a chance, that we can’t waste it and that Atlético de Madrid is going to be in a European competition next year.”
Nonetheless, the President doesn’t want to discard the possibility of qualifying for Champions League, even though he admitted that it would be extremely tough. “There are still enough points to make Champions League, although Villarreal would have to lose four games and I don’t think that will happen, but anything goes in football. You have to keep your hopes intact, though it’s also true that we would have to win all of our remaining matches. This is something that wouldn’t be difficult if the players want it and give everything they have to win all the games,” he asserted.
When he was asked about how many points out of the remaining 24 he thinks the team will win, he was categorical. “All 24. We’d have to earn all 24, but each match is different. We played a magnificent game on Sunday, we had a big lead and we made things tough on ourselves in the final ten minutes. Football is very difficult and you can’t predict anything. As long as there’s life, there’s hope, and we hope to be where we wanted at the beginning of the season, but if we don’t make it, we can still qualify for the Europa League, which may be the only option we have left,” said the President.
Regarding whether he believes that Spain could play in the Copa América after receiving an invitation for the tournament to be played in July in Argentina, Enrique Cerezo said that “the problem is that we all have is the dates. If there are set dates, it doesn’t seem like a bad idea to me, but if there aren’t, everything is going to be tight,” he assured.
With respect to the names that are appearing in the press as possible Atlético de Madrid signings, the President highlighted that “we’ve had and we have a good squad and we’ll try to improve it for next season. I think that the foundation has been laid.”
The three goals and excellent performance given by Diego Costa against Diego Costa didn’t surprise Cerezo. “It didn’t surprise me because I’ve always said that Diego Costa is a great player. People have been saying that he’s useless and have now realized that he’s an extremely important player,” he finished.
The European outlook for Atlético seems different after their victory in Pamplona against Osasuna. Cerezo stated that “everything improved. I think that we still have a chance, that we can’t waste it and that Atlético de Madrid is going to be in a European competition next year.”
Nonetheless, the President doesn’t want to discard the possibility of qualifying for Champions League, even though he admitted that it would be extremely tough. “There are still enough points to make Champions League, although Villarreal would have to lose four games and I don’t think that will happen, but anything goes in football. You have to keep your hopes intact, though it’s also true that we would have to win all of our remaining matches. This is something that wouldn’t be difficult if the players want it and give everything they have to win all the games,” he asserted.
When he was asked about how many points out of the remaining 24 he thinks the team will win, he was categorical. “All 24. We’d have to earn all 24, but each match is different. We played a magnificent game on Sunday, we had a big lead and we made things tough on ourselves in the final ten minutes. Football is very difficult and you can’t predict anything. As long as there’s life, there’s hope, and we hope to be where we wanted at the beginning of the season, but if we don’t make it, we can still qualify for the Europa League, which may be the only option we have left,” said the President.
Regarding whether he believes that Spain could play in the Copa América after receiving an invitation for the tournament to be played in July in Argentina, Enrique Cerezo said that “the problem is that we all have is the dates. If there are set dates, it doesn’t seem like a bad idea to me, but if there aren’t, everything is going to be tight,” he assured.
With respect to the names that are appearing in the press as possible Atlético de Madrid signings, the President highlighted that “we’ve had and we have a good squad and we’ll try to improve it for next season. I think that the foundation has been laid.”
The three goals and excellent performance given by Diego Costa against Diego Costa didn’t surprise Cerezo. “It didn’t surprise me because I’ve always said that Diego Costa is a great player. People have been saying that he’s useless and have now realized that he’s an extremely important player,” he finished.
