Simeone: "The objective is to reach the final, regardless of who we meet along the way"

The motives are quite clear - the objective is to make the final and to do that, we have to beat the team we are drawn against, whoever that might be. Regardless of who we might have been drawn against, the objective is the same and the motives to win are the same. But I am concentrating on Espanyol, this is going to be a hell of a week to try and lock down third place and I am not thinking about anything else.

You say you are expecting the Espanyol game to be tough. Will you be making any rotations?

We have a week full of complicated matches. Espanyol are very similar to us, they are doing a very good job and they are going to demand a lot from us. As for picking the team, we will be looking for players who are the most prepared to respond to a game of these characteristics - players who are capable of taking the game where we want it to go.

Will Filipe and Vrsaljko be fit in time?

Filipe is fine, Sime is still recovering, it's too soon for him to return to the first team. But we have alternative options. We can play with three at the back, with Savic on the right, Koke dropping back to the full-back position, Giménez… I'll decide once the training session is over.

How difficult do you expect Espanyol to be?