Fede Valverde was Real Madrid's star man in the victory over Athletic, scoring an impressive right-footed volley that sealed the win for the Whites. After the match, the Uruguayan expressed his joy at his stunning goal and the victory: “It's crazy. I'm very happy and proud of the effort put in by the whole team. I'm also very grateful to the fans who, despite what happened the other day, came to the stadium and supported us. The players and the team are very grateful for the support and affection you show us even though things don't always go the way we want them to”.
“We knew it was going to be tough today after the defeat in the previous game. It's always hard to come back and we knew it was going to be difficult. I'm happy with the whole team's effort and that we got the win. And thank God for the goal’”.
What was your goal like?
“I didn't think too much about it. Sometimes I think too much and I get lots of doubts and other options in my mind. This time I didn't think and just tried to shoot. I had a lot of shots today and most of them were decent. I felt confident and that comes from my teammates".
Nine goals this season
“It's down to hard work and effort. Also, the help of the goalkeepers, who always stay behind for a while so we can keep practising our shots. And also the coaching staff, who always insist that we stay behind to shoot. It's nice when things go well".
Victory and a clean sheet
“The first thing is to win and then try to help Courtois so that he has as little to do as possible, even though we know he's one of the best goalkeepers in the world. We have to try to stop him from being busy. It was a very tough game. I started at full-back and in the first half we struggled to create chances. In the second half we changed our mindset and with the help of the fans we were able to attack much better”.
Getafe and Barcelona
“We're thinking about Getafe first, we're fighting for the League and we have a lot of belief that we can win it. Then we'll see what happens in the big game, the final against Barcelona. We have to take it step by step, we players say that a lot, but it's the truth. It helps us to focus on tomorrow's work and prepare well for the game against Getafe”.