Sevilla boss Unai Emery has said he’s happy Cristiano Ronaldo is missing from the Real Madrid team tonight when the Andalucians take on Los Blancos.
The Portuguese star sits out the second match of his two-game ban for his red card received against Cordoba. He will be back in the side for the match against Atletico de Madrid at the Vicente Calderon at the weekend.
Speaking to the press ahead of the clash at the Santiago Bernabeu tonight, Emery said he’s happy his team doesn’t have to deal with the prolific frontman but added he is wary of the threat posed by other Real Madrid players.
“If I said I would prefer Cristiano Ronaldo to play I would be lying,” he told reporters. “But they have other players than can play more of a ‘combination’ game.
“The individual characteristics they have are of a high standard. All of them are very good. In their stadium, additionally, they are very strong.”
He went on to add that despite the array of stars in the Los Blancos side, he would be sending his team out to be playing attacking football with the intention of claiming all three points.
“We play every game to win, logically the difficulty of the rival is going to affect your chances, but we have nothing in mind other than going out to win.
“Tomorrow we’ll be thinking that we hope to reach 45 points, we have the opportunity: we know the difficulty involved in beating Madrid at their stadium but our only mentality is being able to overcome it.”
