LOPETEGUI: 'WE HAVE TO PREPARE FOR EVERY MATCH AS IF IT WERE THE LAST'

Julen Lopetegui attended the media this Saturday afternoon ahead of the team's trip to Vigo. The coach warned of the difficulty of the match: 'Celta have lots of good players and their play style suits them. They play some of the best football in the league and they are a tough team with their quality and how they've improved in recent times. We have to prepare well because it will be a tough and demanding game. In the first half of the season they created chances against us and could have come away with points - it was a challenging game. They have improved a lot and you can note the teamwork within the group. They are a top team, and play with intensity and a quick rhythm.

Lopetegui preferred to not debate whether the international break had helped the team as he prefers to focus on the future: 'The break is over and it was for everyone. And so too is the match against Atlético Madrid over. We're all in the same situation. Both we and Celta have had a week to prepare. Rather than looking behind, we look at the challenges in front of us.'

'En-Nesyri and some other players have had little issues. They didn't train as we had hoped and we'll have to wait'

Despite the rest, injuries persist within the squad: 'The rhythm we've been going at throughout the season has stopped us from training right. Now it's different but from next week it's back to playing every three days. We are trying to make the most of this time to recover and work on some things we had planned. En-Nesyri and some other players have had little issues and couldn't train. We will have to wait and see what happens with the squad to travel.'

The coach also declined getting into a debate about whether Sevilla FC were in the La Liga title race after Del Bosque's words this week: 'We don't pay attention to what other people say. We focus on preparing the match against a team with top players. Any other comments have no value for us. What matters is where you are in the league after the last match. Nothing else matters. We have to prepare for every match as if it were the last.'