“Julián Álvarez will be the same as always at any moment”

The president of Atlético de Madrid, Enrique Cerezo, assured this Thursday, in the preview of the semifinal of the Spanish Super Cup against Real Madrid in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), that the Argentine striker Julián Álvarez “will return to being the same as always at any time”, at the same time that he confessed that “it is a shame” that the Frenchman Kylian Mbappé will not play due to injury for the merengue team.

“All players have their ups and downs, no one has to demonstrate their category or their football talent. Julián at any moment will be the same as always, if he is not already the same for many of us,” said the president about the Argentine attacker, who has only one goal in the last seven games.

Cerezo acknowledged that this situation “neither he nor anyone likes it.” “But I think he will really come back and very soon he will be who he really was and who he really is, a magnificent player and one of the best in the world,” he added.

The red and white president warned that “all derbies are different and even more so in this competition”, with “two games to win it.” “I think it will be a good derby,” he predicted about a match in a tournament that winning it would mean that the Colchonero team would restart the season, after being “like this, like this and there, there” in the League.

“The feeling I have is that we are going to play a good game. Another thing is that we have that luck that we often lack to be able to finish the games very well,” he analyzed, before remembering that they have with penalty shootouts – which will decide the match if the match is tied at the end of the 90 minutes – “a bad experience in Europe.”

In addition, he regretted the loss of Mbappé due to his knee injury. “I have always said it, I prefer that the best play and that everyone plays. It is a shame that he could not come because he is injured, but the truth is I would have loved it,” he revealed, and praised his coach, Diego Pablo Simeone.

“We only have one (coach) because he is very good, because he does it very well, because he gives us titles, he gives us triumphs and, above all, because we want him to continue,” said Cerezo, who turns 1,200 games as red-and-white president this Thursday.