Pepe Mel stated in Abegondo’s press room this morning, “I’m ambitious. I don’t give up. I don’t think Dépor are going to lose against Barça”, referring to tomorrow’s clash at 4:15pm in Riazor (Bein Sports). “If I thought Dépor were going to lose against Barça, I’d think about the next game and that gets passed on to the players, they would think that the next match isn’t important, and they’d think about the following one; Not a good thing”, he added.

Furthermore, the Deportivista coach believes that “Dépor can give any team a run for their money, no matter who. And we’re going to go out and compete against Barça”.

He recalled the amount of matches the team has had the past few days, “we’re playing more than we train. It makes things a little difficult. But it’s obvious that we’re reaching the final sprint of the league, and whenever you get to the last eight, nine or ten matches, that’s when things get real. That’s the moment and we have to be ready”.

Regarding the Catalan team, Mel said, “we’re talking about a team that in the last matches, they have scored 6 goals against Sporting, 5 against Celta, and 6 against Paris Saint Germain. In the last three matches they have 17 goals in favour and I think only 2 against; the numbers speak for themselves”.

He also went on to say, “the footballers know it’s a difficult challenge, but as I’ve said to them since day one, Atlético de Madrid was also a difficult challenge. Nothing is impossible in professional sport. They are ready”.

He expects Barcelona’s spirits to be “sky-high. If they already know they’re good, now they think they’re even much better. They’re going to try and do well and have fun”.

He acknowledged he is worried about Joselu’s fitness with Florin Andone (our other striker) being suspended: “He finished with some discomfort yesterday. Yesterday he did specific work alone. It looks like he’s better today, but we have to give him 24 hours as these things seem to be over the next day. We hope he’ll be ok tomorrow”. He finished off saying, “If you ask me, I think he’ll be good to play”.