Villarreal defender Jaume Costa feels his team must match Valencia when the pair clash at El Madrigal this Sunday.
Los Che go into the game in fourth position while the Yellow Submarine lie six points and four places behind them.
Former Valencia left-back Costa says he is aware that Nuno Espirito Santo’s team will be eager to claim all three points and that their intensity must be matched by the hosts.
“This is a great game and our opponents will be coming here with a lot of hope, so we must match them or do even better. It’s also one where special conditions apply and we are very fortunate to be able to play in it,” he told a Press conference
“Valencia are very different from last year in that they have a young team with exceptional quality and they are one of our direct rivals for a place near the top.
“There’s a lot of rivalry, so that makes it particularly unique, and they’ll be coming to win after we beat them last year, but we also need to win.”
Villarreal boss Marcelino has a few injury problems, mainly in defence, but Costa believes that should be no hindrance to his side going all out for the win.
“We have some injury problems at the back so we’ll see what the Coach does to address that. But that doesn’t mean we can’t try to get the points.”
After what happened against Sevilla last weekend, when Villarreal conceded twice in the last five minutes to lose the game, Costa admitted the players had been affected by it.
“The team is okay as far as it goes and we can’t hide the fact we were upset at how the loss occurred, but we are already looking forward to the next match.
“We realise we can’t afford to lose games like we did the other day, but it happened and we must learn from it so it doesn’t happen again,” he concluded.
