Carles Gil was the centre of attention in Abegondo’s press room this morning. Born in Valencia and having received his football training in Valencia, the Branquiazul forward admitted that Saturday’s match at the Estadio ABANCA-RIAZOR (8:45 pm, Bein LaLiga) against Valencia, the last one of the first round of LaLiga Santander, is “a special game. I’m facing the team I’ve known all my life, from my city, where I’ve spent many years of my career, especially as a child. Besides, this year my brother (Nacho Gil) is there and it’s more special.”

He explained that “I was born being a Valencia fan. I've been to the stadium with my father, with my brother. From the age of 5 until the age of 21, where I left lots of emotions, lots of experiences. They gave me everything, they saw me grow. I feel a lot of affection for them.”

He confessed that it would be “a strange sensation if both brothers coincided on the pitch. We need this, and my family are with me, with Dépor.” “At least that’s what they said to me. Maybe they’ve said the same to him,” he joked.

He thinks that the draw achieved last Sunday in Villarreal “was positive. The way we achieved it too. It has to serve us as an uplifting point, that point that we can come out on top all together. If we achieve the 3 points against Valencia, we make that draw even better.”

In Carles Gil's opinion, the way to achieve this is “we have to equal them in intensity and aggressiveness, they're very good at that. From that point on, we can compete equally. They're a team that are very comfortable looking for spaces, and counter-attacking. They have very fast players at the front. We have to know how to handle that well. Then, we play at home and we have to be ourselves and try and win the game, whichever way possible.”

He highlighted the fans’ role in all of this, who are always supporting them: “We have very similar feelings. In the end, when we lose we feel annoyed, and so do they. If we win, it’s the other way around. As we have the same feelings, the good thing would be to work together in the same direction and try and do things well all together.”

Despite Valencia’s great season so far, the Branquiazul midfielder is not counting on a draw: “Beforehand, no. Then, obviously, the circumstances of the match will make you see one point as good or as negative. Beforehand, playing at home we have to go for the 3 points. It’s a very difficult match, but we can gain the 3 points if we do things well.”

With Dépor out currently of the relegation zone, Carles highlighted that “everything helps. Specially the sensations and playing at a difficult ground, such as Villarreal’s, and seeing that we were capable of gaining a pointing, creating chances, making it difficult for them too. That has filled us with confidence and morale. What happened before Christmas in the derby was very hard for us. If we achieve a win against Valencia, it would be really positive.”

With the first round about to end, he described the first round of the competition as “bad. We were all expecting to gain more points. There’s a match left, that could turn into 19. But none of us are happy with the sensations we’ve left. Fortunately, we play on Saturday and we have the whole second round to make up for the first.”

When asked about the winter market, Carles Gil was very blunt: “We can make do with what we have. I’m very sure about that. In any team, in any situation, bring something that can improve it. We always want to be the best, and if it has to be via signings, we’ll be pleased.”