Marcelino: "We are in the best possible position to earn fourth place"

Marcelino García Toral talked with the media in the aftermath of a critical win over Alavés on the penultimate matchday of the LaLiga season, and was full of praise for his side's performance -not just on the night, but throughout the season.

The result
"Football is about hard work, seriousness, honesty, rigour and commitment. It's the sum of many parts. Fortunately, I have a squad that have all of these qualities. From 22 points in the first half of the season, to 38 in the second half, playing 59 games... Since January 5th, we've played three games a week. We came back from 0-1 down today to win. We are enormously tired and our minds are overloaded by responsibility and playing finals since January -or even September. I'm very proud of the squad, and I think that we all should be. We have 90 minutes remaining, which is a relief, and it will be the first week since January that we have a week's rest. I hope that, now we have fourth place, we don't let it slip away. It isn't going to be easy. I hope that we manage it. It isn't done yet, but we are in the best possible situation to achieve it."

VCF's fate in their own hands
"The luck that we have is that we come into the final matchday with our fate in our hands. In addition, our opponents have earned top flight safety. After all that they have suffered, it will be a source of joy for Valladolid and the players will let loose, as they don't have the obligation of winning. In no way do I think that this will be an advantage or something decisive. What we need to do is try to win. We have two finals remaining, in fifteen days that will allow us to recover physically and mentally. If we place fourth, it will be a boost in morale for the Copa del Rey final, but we need to focus on Valladolid."

Pride in the team
"We've played 59 games this season, playing finals every time. Since January, we've played three games per week. I think that only Chelsea have played as many. We started out not winning, suffering a lot of injuries, using up all our energy in the first half of the season without winning games and instead taking many draws. But this team always put in the effort. We don't realise that there are players who have featured for 4,000 minutes, who are human beings who need support after putting in so much effort. This squad have taken us to our first Copa del Rey final in eleven years, plus our first Europa League semifinal in five years. I know how the players who have taken 35 points in the second half of the season are. It's been many years since Valencia CF last had a season like this one. I want to thank the fans who have helped us a lot."