The Atletico midfielder met the media before the match against Valencia claiming it is a "very important game, like they all are, its’ in front of our fans and against a big rival. After a week's break in which there has been no league we are keen to play and win with our philosophy to go game by game. We know it's a very important game for our objectives."

Valencia are a great team but if we're good we have a good chance to beat them

He said that Soldado may be out for Sunday's game. "Soldado is a major player for them, but Valencia are a great team that has good players like Jonah, they are scoring a lot of goals. They’ve got Piatti, and Valdez who’re having great seasons. The players don’t worry us individually, but as a team they’re strong, but if we’re at our best, we think we’ve got a good chance," he said.

Mario made it clear that "we have two clear objectives, to qualify for the Champions League and the cup final, they are too important objectives for us."

Finally, he agreed with Simeone's words in the press conference on Wednesday. He said that "in the end, what the fans remember is how you finish the season. What we are doing is very important. We are having a great season but it is true that what counts is how we finish, if we do not have a good end to the season it will be a failure. The important thing is that we are having a good season but the goal is to finish well and do better than we're doing."