Ivan Rakitic has explained why he in particular is looking forward to Sevilla’s derby with Real Betis this weekend.
Sevilla host the Derbi Sevillano this Sunday evening and for midfielder Rakitic, it is an opportunity to continue a personal run of fortune.
“In Germany with Schalke the derbies went really well for me,” explained the Croat to today’s gathered Press.
“Against Borussia I scored four goals and won six games, losing just the once. Derbies are good for me and so I want to continue in this way.
“With derbies there is nothing that needs explaining, because everybody knows about this, I have played in many derbies in Germany, so I know, I understand very well.
“It is a special week, we know. We are going to prepare for this game with maximum intensity. We are playing in our stadium and it is a derby.
“We will go at them, we want to win and we need the points because the situation is currently a little complicated for us.
“There is no need to talk of Betis, it is not necessary, I think if we play our game and if we are on the pitch as we should be, we will not need to speak of Betis or Atletico Madrid or anyone.”
The week after Betis’ visit comes a trip for Los Nervionenses to the Vicente Calderon to face Atleti.
“We must change our mentality a bit, from the first minute. We are at home this weekend, in these two rounds we expect two tough games and we know what the situation is, what we have in mind.
“We do not need to talk much, we will try and we will be ready.”
Sevilla are in a tricky patch of form of late, having lost four of their last six League games, but Rakitic believes it is just down to poor luck in front of goal.
“All that remains is for us to score, we have had many opportunities in games. Negredo has had the third most amount of shots at goal so far, all we need is a bit of luck and the ball to go in.
“Of course we also have to change our mentality a little bit, from the first minute, 11 games have passed and we know how things are. If we motivate ourselves then we win, especially when playing at home.
“We’re a hard team to play against, but we have to defend and if we manage a clean sheet then we will improve at the other end too.”
