“When we see that players like Fabian Ruiz, Carlos Soler or Danilo Pereira are not playing, it gives an idea of the level of the others.” Director of football at Real Sociedad, Roberto Olabe obviously did not have the heart to boast after the draw for the round of 16 of the Champions League. First in its group ahead of Inter Milan and Benfica, the Basque club will face PSG in February and March. “With humility, we must recognize that PSG is a great team,” he underlines on the official media of Real Sociedad, affirming that his players will have to approach this shock with “ambition”. “It will be a great challenge,” he adds, rightly emphasizing that the truth of December is not the truth of February. “Fitness will be very important,” he notes, expressing his “excitement.” “I am sure that all our past experiences will help us to play against a great team,” he continues.
“It’s a very complicated draw but we will have a lot of desire and we will try to do the best possible”, explains for his part the president Jokin Aperribay, on RMC, who judges that PSG is a “reference” and a “ very great team with magnificent players. “He’s a big opponent and we’ll have to do things very well to hope to win,” he continues, who is ironic when we talk to him about Kylian Mbappé’s relative bad luck. “There is still a lot of time before the 8th… But if he is not as good, let them leave him to us (smile). Let him come with us and we will return him at the end of the season. But we are delighted that he is playing against us,” he smiles.
And Mr. Aperribay continued: “We are confident and we are going to make things difficult for PSG.” Difficult to the point of reaching the quarter-finals for the first time in the history of the San Sebastian club? One thing is certain, Anoeta will be on fire for the return match. “We are close to the French border and we have a lot of French supporters who come from Bayonne, Biarritz, Hendaye and even Saint-Jean-de-Luz. We will make sure they are curious because many of our supporters are French. They will be divided but we hope that they will support Real Sociedad,” says Jokin Aperribay, whose team is currently ranked sixth in La Liga.
