Getafe defender Juan Valera feels his team can take a leaf out of Levante’s book and be the surprise team of the season.
Levante finished an unexpected sixth last term, qualifying for European competition, and Valera [pictured, left], scorer of one of El Geta’s goals in the shock 2-1 victory over Real Madrid at the weekend, believes there is no reason why their feat cannot be emulated.
“All the team played well against Madrid and I think we are getting better every year,” he told Marca.
“We have an advantage with respect to last season in that we know each other better after a year working together. There have also not been many signings as we have not needed them, something the club recognised.
“So I think we can do some great things and cause a surprise this season, although we will have to do it with great humility and with our feet on the floor.”
The former Atletico Madrid man went on to analyse the Madrid game after preventing his immediate opponent Cristiano Ronaldo from getting on the scoresheet.
“Cristiano is a great player who can decide a game at any time, but with the help of my teammates we were able to stop him as well as the others, who are also very dangerous.
“Perhaps they weren’t as fluid as they usually are. They ended up with five or six forwards and were still unable to score, but we closed down the spaces, played our own game and had a little bit of luck.”
