Valverde talks Real Madrid, Dembele and Todibo ahead of Valencia

The latest from the Barcelona boss

Ernesto Valverde has held his usual pre-match press conference ahead of Barcelona’s meeting with Valencia on Saturday in La Liga.

The Barcelona boss talked about the Copa del Rey semi-final draw, new signing Jean-Clair Todibo and also gave an update on Ousmane Dembele’s recovery from injury.

Here are the best bits:

Valverde on Dembele

We will asses him on Monday to see how he is. We think he could be back next week, but I don’t have a firm answer.

Valverde on facing Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey

It will be a great game for both the teams and the fans. It will be a fascinating tie and it will be interesting to see who makes it through to the final.

They were going through a poor run of form in the league but they have turned it around and we know that it will be a tough match.

Valverde on Todibo

He’s a player that we were originally going to sign next year but given the circumstances at his old club, we decided to finalise the deal in January, so that he can get to know his new team-mates and our style of play.

It is no secret that we were short of central defenders for a while. Now we have five. The signing hase no bearing on Jeison Murillo’s future, all it will do is serve to give him a bit of competition.

Valverde on Valencia

I see Valencia very similar to last year, they had great success at the beginning and earned many point.

We’re looking forward to tomorrow’s game and we will line-up the best team possible for each respective game. We will see how we are looking in training.