Mendilibar: “Tomorrow’s game will be very difficult. It won’t be a game that ends in a 0-0 draw”
Jaime, Juncá and Mauro Dos Santos will stay at home due to injury, and Izet Hajrovic and Arruabarrena on the decision of the manager
The selected players are: Xabi Irureta, Asier Riesgo, Ander Capa, Lillo, Borja Ekiza, Ivan Ramis, Pantic, Antonio Luna, Dani García, Gonzalo Escalante, Eddy Silvestre, Adrián, Keko, Saúl Berjón, Takashi, Simone Verdi, Sergi Enrich and Borja Bastón. Jaime, Juncá and Mauro Dos Santos will stay at home due to injury, and Izet Hajrovic and Arruabarrena on the decision of the manager.
After publicly announcing the squad, Mendilibar, the Eibar manager, offered his assessment of the Betis team, being cautious about the game tomorrow: “They have some very good players. They may struggle to get the results they want, but they have some outstanding forwards, like Ruben Castro and Molina; players who know how to create chances... and we also have to create those chances. I’m sure it’s not going to be a 0-0 draw. Also, playing Betis with their fans behind them is bound to be a tough match. You can have the game under control and then lose it in one move. We’ll have to score because they definitely will.”
After the last match in Ipurua which ended with victory against Sporting, Mendilibar commented, “We’ve just had a very good match but we’ve had little time to recover, and we've done well on today’s training.” Regarding the injury to Mauro, the coach explained, “He’s had a knock on the knee. It’s an important loss for us. He hasn’t trained today, and we’ll have to wait and see if he’s fit for next week.”
Now that we are in the new year, Mendilibar explained how he sees the month of January and the winter transfer market: “The good news is that almost all the teams are in the same position: Betis always has been and always will be, and Las Palmas too – we are all in the same situation. Our goal is to avoid the players getting serious injuries, and see if we can freshen things up and not play with the same players for the full 90 minutes. It’s going to be a difficult month, with a game every 4 days.”
With regard to the winter transfer market, Mendilibar was clear: “I’m not worried. We know that the club’s Sports Management has been looking at that. I don’t mind if they take the odd player, given that it won’t be easy, although in other countries they seem to have money. And if they take someone then I’m sure that we will be able to do something with the money”.