Renan: Valencia Must Keep The Pace With Barcelona

As Spain's festive footballing break draws to a close, Valencia re-enter the Liga race eleven points off top spot.

But Los Che have a chance to leapfrog Atletico Madrid and also pull closer to Barcelona with a win over the capital side at the weekend.

Goalkeeper Renan Brito looked ahead to this encounter by telling a press conference, "We want to win in order to move into second place and also reduce the gap to Barcelona.

"We want to play well and to help turn our Mestalla into a fortress. With the strength of our fans behind us we can have a great game."

The Brazilian goalkeeper admitted, though, that Atleti's forward line posted a considerable threat.

"The Spanish league is characterised by great attacking players, and Atletico Madrid certainly have those," he went on.

"However, we also have great players and they will have to worry about David Villa, Juan Mata, and so on."

Although the former Internacional man will tonight celebrate New Year with his teammate and countryman, Edu, he reminded the press that Valencia will be back in training on January 1st, making them unique among the front-runners.

"We have to train on New Year's Day because we have two key matches coming up," he argued.

"We must have a strong working mentality in order to be in good physical condition, so it's expected that we'd train."

Steve Michaels, Goal.com



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