Marcelino: ‘The idea is to take a favourable result into the second leg’

Marcelino looked ahead to the Copa del Rey Semifinal 1st leg tie againsr Real Betis in his pre-match press conference on Wednesday.

The game he expects
I expect a tough game. Betis are a good team, they play very good football and dominate possession very well. I don’t know if they’ll come out with a very attacking strategy or not, but we are going to go out there with looking for the win like always. Every side has their own style. We hope to take away a good result for the second leg, better than the 1-0 result from the first leg against Getafe. We are motivated and convinced.

The ideal time for a semifinal?
You never know. I think that we have been a very competitive side throughout the year, but we weren’t able to convert that into victories. Now we’re seeing the reality: We’ve scored 13 goals in the last 6 games, when in the first 19 matchdays in LaLiga we scored 17. That has improved out morale, our confidence, our decisiveness in attack and our conviction in the opposition area. We are in much better form than a few weeks ago. The competitive level in general is the same, and now we take on a competition that is very motivating for us.

No difference in attitude to last year
I don’t think there is a difference. Last year we were very motivated, just like this year. We all have what happened late on against Getafe fresh in our minds, with the two goals and the jubilation amongst the fans. The difference this year is that this is the Centenary and we would like to mark it with a final or a trophy. First of all we have to knock out Real Betis and it isn’t going to be easy. It’s logical to think that we have more of a chance than we did last year against Barça, who have won 6 of the last 10 Copa del Rey competitions, but it isn’t going to be easier.

Away support
We know that the supporters are as excited as us. Their strength will help us to try to reach the final and we will try to give them a favourable result. We know that our team is much stronger with the unanimous support of the fans. We are very motivated and the idea is to take a positive result into the second leg. We expect it to be very close, and for the tie to be decided late in the return leg.

The new arrivals
The new signings are adapting very well to the team. Their attitude is very good. Their willingness to take onboard the concepts is phenomenal and we think that their adaptation and performance will get progressively better. We are very satisfied, but logically they are going to struggle to get into a team of players who have spent a long time together. They need to be patient and make a big effort, which they are doing.