‘Atleti more important than Cerci’

Diego Godin has advised Alessio Cerci to earn his place at Atletico Madrid after acknowledging the forward's recent remarks.

The Italy international suggested last week that he would consider his options after a fruitless start to his career with the Liga champions, but the defender is keen to see his teammate knuckle down in training.

“The truth is that I always like to play too. If I was a substitute, I would participate in every training session and give anything to play," he argued at a Press conference today.

“I talk with the Coach and the group because we all have our own line of work, and here the most important thing is the team.

"Like any player, he wants to play but you have to work hard in every training session. Even if you play five, 10 or 15 minutes, you still have to give everything.”

Godin then looked ahead to Atleti’s crunch Champions League fixture against Olympiakos on Wednesday with optimism.

"We know that we're on a run of three home games. We won the first one against a tough team in Malaga. We're doing well in the league and we're where we want to be," he added.

"Wednesday will be like a final, with our fans at the stadium. We must take advantage of the strength we have at home.

"Just because we play at home doesn't mean we'll win. We still have to fight.

"I don't know if it's our biggest game. It's momentous because we're playing to qualify, and we want to qualify in first place.

"Since we lost in Greece, I won't underestimate anyone. We will give our all like we did on Saturday.

"We're here to play many games, and we're competing well. We know it'll be a tough game but we feel like we have an impressive fortress, the positivity of which is being transmitted to us."

Tags Alessio Cerci Diego Godin
La Liga - Club News