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대한민국 - Soon
Diego Alonso appeared at the press conference prior to Sunday's Gran Derbi. He firstly assessed the state of the squad: "The team is very excited and eager to turn the situation around, knowing that we have a great opportunity at team, group and club level to make it a turning point for us and we will give everything to make the most of it. Form goes out of the window in these type of matches, but we will try to ensure everything goes our way from Sunday onwards.
He was cautious about the players who are struggling with injuries and said that he would wait until Sunday to assess the condition of each of them: "The injured players are improving and we will wait until the last day for them to recover. Marcos [Acuña] was able to complete part of the training session, Sergio [Ramos] was working on the sidelines. These are only small injuries so they're not ruled out for the match. Soumaré received a blow to his ankle and it caused him a lot of pain, but he was in better condition today. Sergio is not ruled out". On a more positive note, as well as highlighting the call-ups of Navas and Juanlu to the Spanish senior and U21 squads, respectively, he spoke of Badé's good form: "Badé has had good performances, even in the cup game when he came on in the 60th minute. What he was showing on a day-to-day basis in training is transitioning onto the pitch. And as for Sergio, we'll wait and see, as I've already said, he's not ruled out."
He insisted once again that there are no favourites in this type of game: "We've seen most of Betis' games. They may have difficulty in front of goal, although one of the factors you have to worry about is their ability to grind out results, but as I said, in derbies everything evens out and for us it's an opportunity. It can allow you to change your footing and it can be a turning point".
He also spoke about the visit of a group of fans to the training ground, which the squad took well: "There was a chat with the club's supporters and they expressed the feelings of the Sevilla fans. The group received it well and it ended on good terms. As for the pressure, for me it's work, work and more work to ensure the players know how we have to play and little else. I didn't like the game against Arsenal, we couldn't fulfil the game plan and the responsibility lies with me and I try to give the players confidence". In this sense, he added that "we undoubtedly understand the feelings of the fans and we don't have to ask them, but we have to do and try to create a good impression of ourselves, beyond the results, and we didn't in the last game. We have to try to recover the game, the energy, our attitude and look for the result".
"We have to improve and focus on our strongest attributes"
As for what he expects for Sunday, the Uruguayan was quite clear: "I particularly want to win, but also to win by being us. Our mindset has to be strong, with a team that identifies itself as Sevilla FC". Returning to the feelings of the last game, he stressed that "in the last game we couldn't play the way we wanted to. Because of the opponent, we couldn't achieve it and I understand that there are games before this one in which we had moments of good performances, yet sometimes the result doesn't reflect that situation. We wanted to win in Cádiz and Vigo and we couldn't achieve it, but it has to be said that against Cádiz we were better, we wrote the headlines, we turned the score around.... just like against Celta. The match against Arsenal is a case in point, but from then on we have to think about what's to come."
On reflection, he was confident about what's to come: "I think the message is clear and if it wasn't then we wouldn't have put in such good performances recently. The change of play against Real Madrid we've tried to repeat in every game, even against Cádiz when we conceded two goals first. The players know what they have to do and we have to keep asserting, improving and focusing on our strongest attributes."