Atlético-MG coach, Argentinian Gabriel Milito, states that he arrives very confident in the decision of the Copa Libertadores against Botafogo, which will be played next Saturday (30) from 4pm (Brasília time) in Buenos Aires (Argentina) . THE National Radio broadcasts the confrontation live.
“We arrived [à decisão] very well, with great desire. It cannot be any other way. We feel an enormous privilege to be here, as tomorrow we will play the final. We all know the sacrifice we made since the beginning of the Libertadores, with that duel against Caracas in Venezuela. We all know the effort we made to reach the final, deservedly so. We are here. We all want game day to arrive. They, who are going to play, know how to play football better. I have a lot of trust in them. I feel like we’re going to have a great final. That we will be very competitive towards this dream of reaching the cup”, declared the Galo commander in a press conference held this Friday (29).
In the conversation with the press, Milito stated that his team is prepared to face any circumstances they encounter in the match: “We are prepared to play a final match, putting a lot of pressure on Botafogo at the beginning. We are also prepared to adopt a position of more positional control, step back, take spaces if necessary. The team understands perfectly when to press, play in the middle of the field, or when to take spaces behind, retreat and stay grouped […]. The team has a clear game plan. We work on this and we are prepared for this type of match, both to put pressure on the rival in their field, and to adapt a waiting position, defending more in the positional position”.
Also present at the press conference was striker Hulk, who admitted Botafogo’s favoritism, but also highlighted that Atlético-MG is capable of securing the continental title for the second time in history: “I actually said that Botafogo is the favorite and I continue to share the same idea. If you analyze it, their year was better than ours. But this is a final, the winner is whoever arrives better on the day, whoever is more focused and makes fewer mistakes. The week was important for us […]. If we want to succeed tomorrow, we have to put into practice what we worked on during the week. And I believe we are capable of that.”
