30 October 2007, by Sean Gillen

Ze Castro: “Atletico Madrid are getting stronger and stronger”

Portuguese defender pleased with team’s form

Atletico Madrid defender Ze Castro hopes that his side can take advantage of their upcoming home matches against their rivals to build on their recent good form.

Los Rojiblancos have won five of their last six league games, with the loss coming away to Barcelona, and an intriguing upcoming week sees them play host to Sevilla on Wednesday and Villarreal at the weekend.

Speaking about the 1-0 win at Levante on Sunday, Ze Castro, who is currently enjoying a run in the Atletico defence, said: “We were made to suffer a bit against Levante, but sometimes that’s the way it is. The important thing is that we won. We’re going to try and win as many games as we can and continue to play like we have been.”

“Now we have a complicated week, as we’re facing very strong teams. Sevilla is a great team, they’re going to show us respect and we’ll do the same. I’m sure that we’re going to see a good match. We expect to win at home and make it to 20 points.

Home ground a fortress

“Vicente Calderon (Atletico’s stadium) is a fortress. When we win, we’re all good and everything is fine. When we lose, everything becomes a problem. We have to keep our feet on the ground, know what we want and go for it. We have a team that is getting stronger and stronger.”

Atletico are currently juggling three competitions, with their good recent form in the league mirrored by a promising start in the Uefa Cup, which included a thrilling 3-3 draw away with Lokomotiv Moscow last week.

“We’re playing three matches per week,” Ze Castro said. “We lost to Barcelona, which is presumably a team that is still better than us, but we’re maintaining consistency. You can’t always play well and win; sometimes you play poorly and win.

“When you concede three goals, as we did in Moscow, you know that criticism will follow, but we’ve been in football long enough to know how it goes.

“We have to remain calm; we have 17 points in La Liga and we drew against Lokomotiv, a tough team, in UEFA. We just have to keep growing and keep our sights on our goals,” concluded the former Academica defender.

Related: Ze Castro PortuGOAL profile