Marcelino: "We need to win the derby against Levante for fourth place"

The final Valencian city derby of the season takes place this Sunday at 8:45pm CEST, and the respective coaches of Valencia CF and Levante UD met up with each other on Saturday ahead of the big game. Marcelino and Paco López have an excellent relationship, but both indicated the importance of taking the three points in the derby. The Valencia CF coach was the first to talk in the pre-game press conference which followed the traditional photo opportunity together.

Tiredness after Europa League action

“The normal thing would be that we recover as the hours go by, and face the game with the desire to win. We need to win in order to take fourth place. We quickly got over the defeat at Vallecas with a win against Villarreal CF, and we want to carry that form over against Levante UD with another victory.”

The final stage of the season

“We don’t have an easy schedule ahead of us. We have difficult games ahead: There is the derby tomorrow and then the regional derby afterwards, albeit in different competitions. Everything evens up in those games. Later on, we have two away games in a row, against Betis and Atletico Madrid, plus the Europa League -in which we have high expectations. We’ve taken a big step towards getting into the next round, but we need a definitive result. We have to continue as we have been, focusing on what lies immediately ahead and not looking beyond the game against Levante UD. At stake in this game is the chance to continue fighting for fourth place. We have to treat this game as if it were the last.”

The schedule for rival clubs

“I’m not one for looking at things in the medium and long term. What other teams do is secondary for me, because it won’t matter if we don’t win our games. The important thing is for us to form at our best in order to win. It’s all about beating Levante UD, not what other clubs do. The points and equality in results show that you can’t consider any team to be inferior, and any side can surprise you, but we are only focusing on ourselves.”

Levante’s strengths

“Levante UD under Paco López are a dynamic, fast side who look for goals through precise passing. We have to protect ourselves very well to ensure that they don’t get behind us, play well defensively and be incisive in attack. We’re playing at home and we have to win. We struggled to get points at the Ciutat de Valencia, so we’re going to try to avoid this turning into a back-and-forth game. Using collective work and a high pace in our play, we will try to take three very important points.”

Paco López: “Valencia CF are a great team with a clear identity”

Levante UD coach Paco Lopez is taking charge for his first derby at Mestalla, and he highlighted the prestige of Valencia CF.

“They are a great side. They’ve improved over the course of the season and they have a clear identity. They are a side that rapidly show what they want to do on the pitch, who are competitive and have believed in themselves in difficult times. It’s important to have conviction in what you do when things go against you. They are tremendously dangerous, because they have players of a very high level. It’s no coincidence that they are in the final of the Copa del Rey, are fighting for the highest positions in the league, and that they have more than one foot in the semi-finals of the Europa League.”