‘Malaga targeting survival, not Europe’

Javi Gracia insists “no-one will make me change my mind” that Malaga’s priority is ensuring survival, not Europe, ahead of Sunday’s match against Espanyol.

A much-improved second half of the season has seen Malaga establish themselves in the comforts of La Liga’s mid-table, 11 points clear of the relegation places with eight games remaining, but Gracia made it clear his side were in no state to begin looking up the standings.

“No-one will make me change my mind,” the Coach said at a Press conference.

“We feel the same need for points as them. I don’t think we’ve achieved our goal [of staying up] with the number of points we have so far.

“It’s good to be ambitious, but ambition doesn’t mean talking about Europe.

“Ambition stems from facts, and the facts say that, right now, the three points against Espanyol are needed to achieve survival.

“We see the team having fully recovered physically and that’s important in these last eight games.

“We’ll practically play half of them in the next two weeks, and we want to take steps forward.

“The first step we want to take is a firm one by beating Espanyol.”

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