"I haven't spoken to Simeone since I left Atletico"

Valencia winger Samuel Lino admitted that his side have suffered a poor run of form in the last three second halves that has no single cause and, unlike coach Gennaro Gattuso, he does not rule out a physical factor.

"In the second halves we are slowing down a bit but we are all talking to improve and play well for 90 minutes," he explained at a press conference.

"I don't know, I feel good, maybe someone else doesn't. Maybe someone has a different fitness. Maybe someone is in a different physical shape. There's a bit of everything, you also have to have a very strong mentality. When the physical part doesn't help, you have to have a very strong mentality until the end," he said.

The winger admitted that they are going through "a delicate moment" after drawing with Elche and Sevilla and losing to Mallorca, but he was convinced that they can beat Barcelona on Saturday.

"We are thinking about winning even though Barcelona are one of the best teams in the world and have some of the best players in the world. But we also have good players who could be in much better teams than Valencia. They have to respect us a lot because Valencia are also a big team," Lino said.

Finally, Samuel Lino said that he has had no contact with the Atletico coach since he packed his bags to temporarily leave the Madrid side: "I haven't spoken to Simeone since I left and said goodbye. He said a few positive words to me and we each went our own way".