Emery on Saturday’s match: “Madrid knows it will be a demanding match for them”

Villarreal manager Unai Emery talked about the ambition his team has when facing a club like Real Madrid this weekend in a pre-match interview with MARCA.

“The important thing is to have a great performance. We are ambitious before this game; we want to see how we are facing a rival of the demand as is Madrid, a rival that arrives leader and that is showing strength, but that knows that this will be a demanding match for them.”

He mentioned the “respect” that has to be given when playing a team of Real Madrid’s caliber and currently lead LaLiga in the standings.

“They are a team that demands the most of you, that’s why they are the best team in the league and the leader. They will always demand a lot from you, whatever the situation. There we drew and we played a good game, now we want to improve, but when you talk about Madrid you know you have to respect them to the maximum.”

Emery answered the question of whether he believes Real Madrid will be already looking past this weekend to the Champions League match against PSG next week. He also gave same tactical analysis of what his team needs to do to compete against the league leaders.

“These players know the importance of matches, so I think it’s more from the outside to just talk about PSG. The Madrid players know that Saturday’s match will be a complicated match and that they will have to be used thoroughly at La Ceramica.”

“We respect Madrid and that is why I expect a long and balanced game in which the two teams will try to control and run when we can. They have many game alternatives, so we must be focused, with a high level of intensity and be intelligent to know how to read when we can go for them.”