MENDILIBAR: "WE COULDN'T TRAIN WELL AND WE STARTED A TEAM TO AVOID INJURIES"

José Luis Mendilibar, having seen his side fall to defeat against Real Sociedad, recognised that it was always going to be tough to get a good result at the Reale Arena: "It was tough because there were players carrying niggles, we hadn't trained well and we were fearful that some players might get injured. It's what happened with Montiel, who we thought was one of the better-prepared players. We started an eleven with the intention of avoiding injuries and giving minutes to certain players, but we weren't able to get ourselves up for this match."

The man from the Basque Country, wanted to put value on what had been achieved: "We stayed up with five or six good performances, we kept ourselves in Europa, we won the competition and the job is done. There is nothing else to do but to congratulate us." Already thinking about the Summer, he made it clear that "the good thing is that you head into the holidays with the mindset of a champion and you come back like that. Everything will be positive in pre-season and that is good for the club."