Cádiz CF head coach Álvaro Cervera spoke to the media ahead of Wednesday’s LaLiga Santander clash with Real Madrid CF. “It’s not easy to prepare for a game when you’ve just had one two days ago and you’ve got to play again in another two or three days’ time, too,” he said. “And on top of that, we’re coming up against Real Madrid. It’s a challenge for us, particularly having the Madrid game in the middle. But that’s how the fixtures have fallen; we just have to deal with it and we’ll see what changes we can make.”
Players out of Wednesday’s match: “[Alberto] Perea and Álex [Fernández] are definitely unavailable, and then there’s [Juan] Cala, who’s having intensive treatment. We’re handling him with plenty of care. He’s not definitely out of the game, though. He may well be fit enough to play some part, although it’s unlikely he’ll be able to start.”
Real Madrid: “I’m guessing people have drawn conclusions from the game against Getafe, but it’s worth noting that they were missing the likes of Casemiro, Nacho [Fernández] and [Toni] Kroos. I think they’re a top side; they’re the chief candidate to win the Champions League, in my view. They’re going to come here tomorrow determined to keep themselves in the hunt for the league title. They’re likely to take more of the initiative, and our aim will be to not let them have it all their own way.”
Expectations for the game: “They’ll have more of the ball, and we’ll look to defend well and try to hurt them whenever we win it back or they make a mistake. I don’t envisage us stepping up and pressing them high up the pitch or leaving spaces in behind us. They’re very good on the ball, they have a lot of quality and we’ll try to limit their possession to areas where they can’t hurt us and try to win it back where we can hurt them.”
Differences from the teams’ first meeting of the league campaign: “We’ve had another watch of the game from the first half of the season and things have changed completely. Having seen their recent games, the one against Getafe isn’t representative of how they’re playing. Against Barcelona and Liverpool, they were more dangerous playing on the break than when they had the ball. [In Cádiz’s first clash with Madrid this season], they pinned us back and we hurt them on the counter-attack.”
Fight for survival: “Everyone knows the position we’re in. We’re better off than the teams who are behind us right now, but if we don’t keep our points tally ticking over, they can close that gap on us. In the game against Celta, I didn’t get the sense that there’s any let-up from the lads. We looked totally focused throughout – I didn’t see any complacency.”
No fans in the Carranza: “We miss our supporters. There are two sides to not having fans in the stands. In games like tomorrow’s, you really miss them. It’s great for us when we see our fans as we pull into the stadium; it gives us a real boost. You want your fans to be there week in, week out, because they really help you from the first whistle to the last.”
On Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane: “I think he’s a very down-to-earth guy and an absolute legend. He’s a fantastic coach. He’s a good man-manager and a really likeable fellow. We’re different, because one of us coaches Real Madrid and the other coaches Cádiz. I like his style as a coach.”