Thiago Silva: 'An historic trophy!'

Thiago, Paris Saint-Germain will play another Coupe de France final on Friday. How are you approaching the match?

"The Coupe de France is an historic trophy. It's even more important this year because the club is celebrating its 50th anniversary. So I think it's a very important moment to concentrate and give everything for the team, with the aim of celebrating at the end. This Coupe de France is very important. Winning it is magnificent! But before that, we've got to play the game. We're going to do everything we can to bring it home."

After the friendly matches, the group is now focused on the preparation of this final...

"We're focused! After the three months of confinement, all the players returned to training with a lot of motivation, and the two cup finals and the Champions League in the fore front of their minds. That gave us even more motivation. The staff tried to manage the training load in order to gradually build up the group. It was important to regain some automatisms because that's what makes us win games. Not having conceded a goal was also important because we know we have the qualities to score. We're going to work hard to finish the season well and I'm convinced the team will give it all they've got."

What do you think of this team from Saint-Etienne?

"It's good to play against this team. They have a lot of qualities. Sometimes people think it's easy to win for Saint Germain because we've got a lot of qualities. But in football, if you don't work hard, it can be complicated. So you have to prepare yourself mentally and get to a good level. You have to show all your motivation, a good state of mind and be confident. I'm sure we'll show that on the pitch."

You could win your fifth Coupe de France and equal the record of victories for a player*.

"I don't really look at that kind of statistic. Afterwards, it's true that it's an important record. Despite those four Coupe de France I've won, it's the next one that's always the most important, especially if it allows you to go down in the history of the competition and the club. So it's obviously a particular motivation for me this year. I've got two months left and you can be sure that I'm going to give it my all on the pitch to win as many titles as possible. There are three to play, and we're going to work to win them all."

*record held by Marceau Somerlinck (in 1946, 1947, 1948, 1953 and 1955 with Lille), Dominique Bathenay (1974, 1975 and 1977 with Saint-Étienne, and 1982 and 1983 with Paris Saint-Germain) and Alain Roche (1986 and 1987 with Bordeaux, and 1993, 1995 and 1998 with Paris Saint-Germain).