PRESS CONFERENCE | Luís Castro: "We must be 100% focused because we are going to play against a good team"

Luís Castro appeared this afternoon at a press conference ahead of the match that Levante UD will play tomorrow, Saturday, against Atlético de Madrid at the Ciutat de València Stadium.

The coach commented that his team approaches the match “like a final, as we always do.” At the same time, he acknowledged that the energy in the locker room is “good,” but he does not want the team to become overconfident after last weekend's victory. “We have to be aware that the match will start 0-0. What we have done before means nothing in tomorrow's match. We must be 100% focused because we are going to play against a good team. There are no easy matches in LALIGA, but Atlético de Madrid has always shown that it is a very difficult team to beat,” he stated.

The way the victory against Elche CF was achieved was one of the aspects highlighted by the coach in the press conference. “More than winning, it was how you won. You have to see what happened after the 2-2. We didn’t see a Levante UD player stay on the ground or feel down. We saw all the players quickly get back, check the time, and say, ‘Come on, we have to win!’ A team that plays a match where they can score four or five goals, concedes a goal in added time, and comes back saying, ‘Come on, let’s win!’ is mentally in a very good place,” he said.

Regarding tomorrow's opponent, Atlético de Madrid, Luís Castro described them as “a very complete team. The individual quality makes for a good collective. It is a complete team, where everyone works together. Simeone deserves a lot of credit because all the players work as a team. They have very physical players in terms of high intensity and quality per match, which makes the team's offensive and defensive transitions very good.”

Below, you can watch the full press conference.