Cristiano unstoppable claims Garitano

Eibar boss Gaizka Garitano has described Cristiano Ronaldo as unstoppable ahead of his team’s meeting with Real Madrid on Saturday.

La Liga’s smallest club take on the European champions at their 5,250-capacity Ipurua ground knowing they must deal with arguably the world’s best player on current form, a task for which Garitano revealed he had no special plans.

“Cristiano Ronaldo cannot be stopped by any means and nobody has been able to do it so far,” he told Marca.

“We’ll try collectively because to do it individually would be impossible. If you stop one player you get another and, although Cristiano is the best, we can’t neglect any of them and in that respect our work must be collective.

“Every week you drive yourself mad getting the best out of your team, not only for Real Madrid, and we’ll try to play in our own style without trying to invent too much.

“Playing at home we’ll try to counter what they do, which they do very well, with our own weapons. We are a team that doesn’t give anything away.”

Garitano believes the small dimensions of the pitch at Ipurua will not cause the Madrid superstars too many problems.

“They are used to playing at all kinds of places in the heat, cold, on big pitches, small pitches…that’s why they are so great and have such good players.

“They are good in all situations and for them to come to Ipurua is a normal match. Madrid are going to play well and the important thing for us is to present the best version of ourselves.

“I’m sure we won’t win just by hoping,” maintained Garitano, who accepted a fixture against Carlo Ancelotti’s men was not like any other.

“It’s a special game. Usually people say it’s only three points, that it’s another game, but it isn’t.

“One of the best teams in the world is coming to our home, which is so small, so it can’t be just another match.

“They are scoring four or five goals per game and we have to start there, try to keep a clean sheet, make a decent game of it. Why can’t we get something from it?

“Three points are at stake and we won’t give them up easily. You never know where you can pick up points,” he concluded. 

Tags Cristiano Ronaldo Garitano
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