Raul Garcia: "We all know that in Pamplona we expected a tough game"

Raul Garcia returns home with Atletico Madrid. He started out in the Osasuna academy and returned there on loan last season, where he played 33 games and scored 11 goals. He returns with the objective of getting a win to continue strengthening the claim for a Champions League place.

The midfielder notes that "it is a field in which the fans really help the team and Osasuna are playing well enough to fill the stadium, it’s going to be a difficult game to get tickets and there will be a great atmosphere."

About the opponent of the day, Osasuna, said "early in the season they were a bit weak away from home but they’ve signed good players and now look strong. I don’t think it's a game that we can approach like at the beginning of the season."

He acknowledges that "we all know it will be a very difficult game. Maybe I can have different feeling to other years. Yes I am saying that the team is ready and aware that it will be a tough game. Osasuna will be very strong. We are not thinking about relaxing."

The fact that he came through the Osasuna academy system makes these games special to Raul Garcia. "It’s the first game I look for when the fixtures come out. It is a game that, logically, you want to play in, you have many feelings and those who know me know that. It is an important day," he says.

After the first home loss, Raul Garcia says the dressing room is "trying to see what happened, trying to solve the problems encountered in the game, but we have not gone crazy. It is the first game we lost at home all season and we need to remember that things are fine. We go to Pamplona confident of the win."

The forward is very clear about the team's goal. He notes that "if we said it before, its more important now. At the end of the season will be the time to evaluate these things. We are fighting to get into the Champions league, which is the main objective of the team. And we want to keep fighting for second place until end of season."