Marco Verratti: 'The final sprint will be intense'

Marco, there is a real battle at the top of the league to go out and win the title. How are you finding this season?

"I think that all seasons are complicated. But this season really puts into perspective our other seasons, it shows us how incredible our achievements have been in previous years. We won lots of matches. At times, we won the league by 10 points. This year is more difficult generally, in sport, in everything. We are experiencing a strange year, where we have a lot of Covid-19 cases and injuries. I think the context is the same across all leagues. The final sprint of the season will be intense. We are still in the running for the title. We have 12 'cup finals' in the league, the Champions League and the Coupe de France. We will bring everything that we need to succeed. What's certain is that we are always giving 100% on the pitch. Sometimes that works, at other times it doesn't. With the team that we have, we must fight until the very end in order to take home the title."

On Saturday, you will travel to Dijon, who currently sit in last place in the league and come into this match on a run of seven defeats, this has everything needed to be a bit of a banana skin?

"It's possible, because we have everything to lose and they have everything to win. We need to go out on the pitch without thinking about what's going on elsewhere or about the league table. We need to play with 100% of our weapons. We can win, we are stronger, we have top players but we need to show it on the pitch. If we think that it's going to be easy, we will be in trouble. We need to put in an intense performance for the full 90 minutes and win this match because it's a cup final for us."

Are you already thinking about the second leg against Barcelona?

"We can't afford to think about it, if we were in first place in the league we could possibly get by and only think about Barcelona, but in the current situation, we can't do so. We need to think about Dijon, Bordeaux and then the Coupe de France. These are very important matches for us."

In the first leg, you put in an almost perfect performance, did you also feel that on the pitch?

"I think that when you win 4-1 in Barcelona, you have definitely put in an almost perfect match. We didn't win 4-1 through pure luck, we created chances and defended well. We ran together, we put in a very good match, when we had the ball and when we didn't. The coach prepared us excellently for the match, which is what allowed us to dominate. We need to learn from our defeats, we need to show on the pitch that we are a more mature team than a few years ago. If we are all at 100% for 90 minutes, we can do great things this season."

As a final question, could you say a few words on the first goal and your assist for Kylian Mbappé, where you were almost in a centre forward position in the box. Can you explain how you decided to do this? 

"With the coach, I feel that I have more freedom, I am able to go where I want on the pitch and to find spaces, to play further up the pitch. On several occasions, I got into the box and in the box, it's easier to make an assist. I needed to give Kylian to perfect ball. These are things that we do in training. We are learning every day and we hope that as time goes by, we will continue to get better."