"At the Bernabéu, you can put up a fight and end up destroyed"
Eibar coach José Luis Mendilibar spoke ahead of Sunday's trip to Madrid: "All of their players worry me; they can have a poor game and still beat you".
Even a under-strength Madrid is dangerous
Eibar coach José Luis Mendilibar spoke ahead of Sunday's game against Real Madrid. The Basques are comfortably placed in eighth but have never beaten the capital side and Mendilibar is well aware of Madrid punching power at their own stadium: "they can have a poor game and still beat you".
Is there such a thing as a good moment to meet Madrid? We have been able to compete in all of our matches against top flight teams and picked up quite a lot of points, but we still haven't done that against sides like Madrid. There are two or three teams who are superiorto the rest and Madrid are one of them. It makes no difference to me how they go into their games, we are talking about sides who don't need to play that well to win. They have many alternatives to their game to draw on.
Madrid go into this one after conceding five goals in two games… I prefer to focus on the positive attributes which the team we play against possess. These kinds of teams don't stay in negative runs for very long and nor are they playing so bad. I don't think they will be nervous or worried about their style of football.
Do you think Eibar could be 'made to pay' for Madrid's recent run of results? No one can say what will happen. If I say one thing, the opposite could happen. We're going there like we always do when we are away from home, knowing that they can really punish us hard on the counter if we are caught out in attack. They don't even need three seconds to reach your penalty area. Many people have come up with theories about how to stop them and how to position the team but when they are on song, you don't really have a lot of options. It's going to be a very complicated game for us.
We could suppose that you are fully aware of the gulf in difference between the two clubs? We are takling part in the same league so at least we have that in common. When all is said and done, you need teams like us to be able to have a competition. They wouldn't win so often if everyone was at their level.
Could the amount of praise Eibar have been receiving recently be a help? I think it's great when excitement is generated because football is about that - making the people who pay their entrance fee or season tickets enjoy themselves and have a great time. Three years ago, no one would have thought Eibar would be playing in the First Division. If those of us who are part of the club start thinking too much about the current situation, we run the risk of committing the same errors we have made in the past. It could also go wrong is we remain cautious but at least we will be prepared and not caught out by something unexpected.
