First team

SAMPAOLI: "BEING WITH THE TEAMS AT THE TOP FOR SO LONG SHOWS OUR WORTH"

05/03/2017

The Argentine underlined the need to win once again to stay in the fight

Jorge Sampaoli attended his pre-match press conference following the final training session before tomorrow's trip to Vitoria. The unusual scheduling of the match shouldn't have any bearing on the game: "Apart from the novelty of playing on Monday, that doesn't change the need to win to stay up there, because the two teams above us won. We're looking forward to seeing what we can do at such a difficult ground".

Unlike other games, the team knows how their immediate rivals got on in their games: "What's required is different in terms of scheduling, but the same regarding what we need, whether we play knowing the other teams' results or not. Our duty is to win as always even though we're playing a very strong team".

The team will have to do without Nasri: "We'll play differently, because we have to replace such an important player with a different approach. We have to make up for his absence with a style that's also attacking".

To that end, it's vital that Franco Vázquez rediscovers his form from earlier in the season: "We need Franco at his best for the rest of the season. The solution to bad patches in football depends on a lot of things and hopefully we'll see him at a good level from this point on".

Asked about whether penalties need more serious practice, the boss was clear: "We always take it seriously. These are situations that the players practise individually, but a match situation generates extra pressure. We've changed the names but not the fact that we're missing".

Returning to the topic of staying up there at the top, Sampaoli was positive: "It's difficult to have such strong opponents with players at such a high level. We have to value the fact that, keeping up with them for so long means that the team has courage and hopefully we can keep it up".

To wrap things up, he looked, but only briefly, towards Leicester: "They've undergone a huge change psychologically and that makes them a very dangerous opponent ahead of the second leg. But we've got to matches before that and we have to get through them. We're going to evaluate everything thinking not just about Leicester but also about our more immediate games".