“Our goal is to win the Champions League, not to take revenge on Benfica”

Real Madrid coach, Álvaro Arbeloa, has assured that the team’s objective is to “win the Champions League”, not to take revenge on Benfica, whom they will face this Tuesday in the first leg of the Playoff to reach the round of 16, and he believes that they will face a “very competitive, very intense” rival who will make “things very complicated” for them.

“We always think about winning. Our objective is not to eliminate Benfica, our objective is to win the ‘Champions’, because that is what this shield obliges you to do. For us it is not revenge, but an objective to pass the tie,” he declared at a press conference. “It’s a new game, we don’t think about anything else. The game has already been analyzed, but tomorrow is a totally new one. We want to play a great game, have a great performance with the objective of winning,” he added.

In this sense, he stressed the “demand” of facing José Mourinho’s men again. “We are very aware of the difficulty of tomorrow’s match, of the rival, of the atmosphere that always exists here, of the demands it places on us and of the level we have to give if we want to win the match, which is the objective. We are very focused and very focused on getting the best out of ourselves,” he said.

“I don’t think José can surprise me, because I know perfectly well what he is capable of. It doesn’t matter that Benfica showed up with the Youth League team, I knew the intensity they were going to put on the field. Tomorrow it’s going to be more of the same, I know that they are even capable of playing even better and we have to be prepared for it. My idea is not to surprise anyone, neither José nor anyone else; when Real Madrid takes the field everyone has to be very clear about what they are going to have in front of them, and the clearer it is have it, I better do my job,” he continued.

In addition, he joked about the possibility of inviting Mourinho to the gray sofa in his office. “If I invite him one day, it will be to eat. It will be similar to what we saw three weeks ago, because they have a leader who shows them the path, the way of playing and competing. Then there are small nuances depending on the player who is on the field, but I expect a very competitive, very intense Benfica, who is going to make things very complicated for us. We have to prepare for that high level that we are going to have in front of us,” he indicated.

On the other hand, Arbeloa was convinced that the Santiago Bernabéu will receive Mourinho “with a great ovation” in the second leg. “He will receive him with a great ovation, because Real Madrid fans are aware of everything José did for Real Madrid, which was to give everything and a little more. I am sure they will receive him with a great ovation,” he said.

In another vein, the Madrid coach did not want to reveal if Kylian Mbappé will play. “He is here, he has come with us, he is going to train and tomorrow you will see if he plays or not,” he said, before talking about his relationship with the players. “They have received me very well from the first day. We have tried to connect, the objective is the same, which is nothing other than winning, and that is what we work for every day. Since I have arrived, the predisposition of the players to receive me has been maximum, to receive the ideas we have regarding the game, to work and to put them into practice. We have not been around for a long time, but I cannot ask them more than to continue with the same attitude, the same energy, the same desire and the same unity of what they are showing,” he explained.

Lastly, he gave his opinion on whether he sees the team as more solid defensively when Tchouaméni, Camavinga and Fede Valverde join in the midfield. “At Villarreal we play without those three midfielders. The objective is always to be solid. It is very difficult nowadays to play good football if you are not solid, if you are not compact, if you do not know how to defend well. We have to be able to do everything, and to do everything well you need a lot of concentration, training a lot and working a lot. Fede, Tchouaméni and Camavinga are doing a great job, I don’t have to discover their capabilities. They are three world-class players and they are doing really well. When a team is solid, it is the work of ten players,” he concluded.