Real Madrid

Sami Khedira accompanied Jose Mourinho in the Real Madrid City newsroom. The white-team midfielder is conscious of the importance the beginning of the foremost continental competition has for his team in terms of both sports and spirit: “It’s normal to not have very high self-esteem when you don’t start as well as you should, but tomorrow is a very good opportunity to win, and recuperate it 100%." The German player, who said that football is the “priority” in his life, also talked about the way they should dispute all the competitions they enter into: “It’s very difficult to concentrate on a single competition. The Champions gets us going, but we could say that the Liga isn’t enough and defending the Liga title motivates us. All competitions get me going and we have to have the same concentration for all of them.”

Referring to Group D, which includes his team together with three other champions of their respective Leagues—Borussia Dortmund, Ajax, and Manchester City—he said: “We’re four top level teams that are champions in our respective Leagues. I’m always happy to play against the best, and even better if it’s in the last phase. We’re all at the same level and the games are going to be decided by very little".

When asked about Mourinho’s words in the newsroom of the Sanchez Pizjuan stadium, the German football player couldn’t have been clearer: “I think we’re a team. The coach has the responsibility and we have the responsibility to play well. We have to play better to give the best of ourselves. The coach is right and we played a very poor game. He has every right in the world to say what he wants before public opinion".