LOPETEGUI: "ESPANYOL ARE IN GREAT FORM AND ARE VERY COMPETITIVE"

Julen Lopetegui spoke to the media in the pre-match press conference prior to our match against RCD Espanyol on Sunday. The coach opened by speaking about the state of the squad: "We're playing just 64 hours after our last match and that logically means some players are doubts. We're travelling early so we have the chance to rest there and then we'll make the decisions. Karim is definitely out and we'll see who else. Espanyol are a good team in great form - they play well at home. We have to get ourselves together quickly and move our attentions back to the league. Every game is such a challenge in La Liga."

Speaking more about the little rest in between matches, Julen looks at it as a weekly challenge: "We play on Thursdays and then we have three days before we're back in La Liga. We're up against quality opponents who have the entire week to prepare the match. We have to accept the challenge and be ready - Espanyol have a lot of variety in attack." Our manager then went on to speak about the competition in the squad, mentioning players such as En-Nesyri and Navas: "We're happy with all our players. Healthy competition only benefits the team and we're happy with everyone's performance. We always look to go into matches with the motivation and desire to win. Jesús got some minutes in his legs after three months out - we'll make our call on him tomorrow, he needs to get back into his rhythm. En-Nesyri has had knocks and now he's getting back into the swing of things and getting his confidence back. We're hopeful he'll help us in this last half of the season."

Finishing up, Lopetegui stated he was only thinking about tomorrow's match: "The only objective we have is to win every single match as they come. We have to focus on Espanyol - it will be a good fight. The demands of any club, manager and players is to win every match. That's football."