The ‘rojiblanco’ players, happy, now are thinking about beating Espanyol
Domínguez: “We want to pick ourselves back up in La Liga”
The ‘rojiblanco’ players are now completely focused on the Copa del Rey round of 16 qualifying tie against Espanyol, the first leg of which will be played on Wednesday 22 December at 8 pm at Estadio Vicente Calderón. Perea, Tiago, Domínguez and De gea were the players who appeared before the press in the mixed zone after the win over Málaga and all of them highlighted the good game played by the squad and agreed that they have their minds set on beating Espanyol in the Cup to pick themselves up from the loss to the Catalan side in league play three weeks ago.
Luis Amaranto Perea acknowledged this before the media. “We came out strong from the opening minute and we deservedly beat Málaga. It was an important week because a team such as Atlético de Madrid can’t lose three games in a row the way we did. We were feeling bad about the elimination from the Europa League, but we still have good feelings in general. We’ve been getting better and you could see that against Málaga. Our aspirations are to finish in third or fourth place. The fact that we’ve now gone two consecutive matches in league play without conceding a goal is crucial.”
Tiago tallied two goals in the win over Málaga on two accurate headers off free kicks taken by his countryman Simão, which opened and closed out the scoring. “Beating Málaga was very important to finish La Liga in 2010 with three more points. It’s very good to have scored off set pieces because it allows you to open the scoring in matches that could become complicated. I hadn’t scored two goals in the same game for a long time and that always boosts your confidence. But the important thing was for the team to get a win like the one we did. The team player very well from the start, together, with a strong desire to win, not make any mistakes… and the truth is that we played a great match. Now we have to look forward because on Wednesday we have a Copa del Rey fixture and we want to win that one, as well.”
Álvaro Domínguez scored his first goal in an official match with the first squad. The home grown product stated that he dedicated the goal to “my grandfather, who passed away recently, who always came to watch me play and train in the junior squads. Scoring a goal is important and after all of the work that the team had done it’s incredible. It wasn’t an easy win. We wanted to get another victory on the road and we achieved that. We had an outstanding debt with set pieces and we were able to score all three goals off them in this game. We had a rut during a tough week, but the team has responded. We want to be in Champions spots when the first half of league play ends. Now we’re going to focus on the Cup fixture on Wednesday because we want to pick ourselves back up from the loss to Espanyol at the Calderón in La Liga.”
David de Gea kept a clean sheet for the second consecutive match. The goalkeeper from Madrid was happy, stating that “it’s important not to concede goals. The team played at a very high level and earned three vital points. Furthermore, the team played well in defence, was perfect in general, and not giving up any goals in this team is synonymous to victory. I have to thank the effort of the entire squad in defence, because it was key to finishing with a clean sheet. Now we have to think about the Cup, a very nice tournament in which we’d like to make it back to another final for the supporters, although the important thing is to qualify for Champions League.”
Luis Amaranto Perea acknowledged this before the media. “We came out strong from the opening minute and we deservedly beat Málaga. It was an important week because a team such as Atlético de Madrid can’t lose three games in a row the way we did. We were feeling bad about the elimination from the Europa League, but we still have good feelings in general. We’ve been getting better and you could see that against Málaga. Our aspirations are to finish in third or fourth place. The fact that we’ve now gone two consecutive matches in league play without conceding a goal is crucial.”
Tiago tallied two goals in the win over Málaga on two accurate headers off free kicks taken by his countryman Simão, which opened and closed out the scoring. “Beating Málaga was very important to finish La Liga in 2010 with three more points. It’s very good to have scored off set pieces because it allows you to open the scoring in matches that could become complicated. I hadn’t scored two goals in the same game for a long time and that always boosts your confidence. But the important thing was for the team to get a win like the one we did. The team player very well from the start, together, with a strong desire to win, not make any mistakes… and the truth is that we played a great match. Now we have to look forward because on Wednesday we have a Copa del Rey fixture and we want to win that one, as well.”
Álvaro Domínguez scored his first goal in an official match with the first squad. The home grown product stated that he dedicated the goal to “my grandfather, who passed away recently, who always came to watch me play and train in the junior squads. Scoring a goal is important and after all of the work that the team had done it’s incredible. It wasn’t an easy win. We wanted to get another victory on the road and we achieved that. We had an outstanding debt with set pieces and we were able to score all three goals off them in this game. We had a rut during a tough week, but the team has responded. We want to be in Champions spots when the first half of league play ends. Now we’re going to focus on the Cup fixture on Wednesday because we want to pick ourselves back up from the loss to Espanyol at the Calderón in La Liga.”
David de Gea kept a clean sheet for the second consecutive match. The goalkeeper from Madrid was happy, stating that “it’s important not to concede goals. The team played at a very high level and earned three vital points. Furthermore, the team played well in defence, was perfect in general, and not giving up any goals in this team is synonymous to victory. I have to thank the effort of the entire squad in defence, because it was key to finishing with a clean sheet. Now we have to think about the Cup, a very nice tournament in which we’d like to make it back to another final for the supporters, although the important thing is to qualify for Champions League.”
