Rafa Benítez gave his pre-match press briefing in China, on the eve of the team’s fourth run-out of the summer, and the last in their tour of the East, against AC Milan
De Gea and more signings: “I have an amazing team, a team I am working with every day. My objective is to extract the very best performance for them and if I can improve the team, then I will try to do that. I am focused on trying to get the players to improve day by day”.
Reply to Mourinho: “I am Real Madrid’s coach, I love football, I understand football and for that reason I only talk about football”.
Reus: “As I mentioned just a moment ago, I already have a great team and I am happy with my players. I am centred only on preparing for this last game of the tour against AC Milan. When we get back to Madrid we will make a more in-depth study and evaluate the squad. Today, I’m only thinking about the group and this group is very good”.
Benzema and Modric: “Both were abnle to train today and will be able to play tomorrow”.
Mourinho claims you “destroyed” Inter: “We are here to prepare for the Milan game and a tour which so far, has been going well. I’d like to talk about the present day game and that means Real Madrid or the future of Madrid”
Gameplan against Milan: “We haven’t got a definitive side in mind because we have only just ended today’s training session. There’s a lot of confidence in the squad and that makes it much harder for me to select a team. The hot and humid conditions will force us to make some changes. What matters though is that the players who do play give their maximum, not the line-up”.
Players who might be leaving: “We’re still in the pre-season and we’ve seen players doing really well and giving 100%. We’ll have to wait until after the next game before we make any evaluations. I’m very happy with all of them, but it’s true that decisions need to made about some of them. Out of respect, we’ll do that when we get back to Madrid”.
Platini, candidate for FIFA presidency: “I’m here to talk about the tournament. I’d rather just talk about our next game”.
Milan: “They’re a club which I like a lot. They have been making a real effort to improve, they have great players and a great coach who did well last season and I’m sure he’ll continue to do well in the future”.
Pressure to win silverware: "The objective is the same every year for Real Madrid: play well and win trophies. It’s not an additional pressure, it’s the pressure which is expected at Madrid. And fundamental in us achieving that will be Cristiano, Bale, Benzema, James... all of the players have to play an important role and we hope they will".