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Atletico Madrid v Cordoba: Godin reveals Atleti motivation

SoccerNews in La Liga 30 Oct 2014

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Diego Godin feels Atletico Madrid are extra motivated by their LFP awards snub but is wary of the challenge posed by winless Cordoba.

Atleti were largely overlooked in Monday’s awards ceremony for the Spanish Football League, despite confounding the critics to end the domestic dominance of Barcelona and Real Madrid by lifting the Liga title last season.

Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo unsurprisingly took the Player of the Year title, but the only recognition for the champions came for Diego Simeone who won the Coach of the Year prize.

However, Miranda, Gabi and Koke from Atleti’s present squad and former players Thibaut Courtois, Diego Costa and Filipe Luis – who now all represent Chelsea – were overlooked in different categories.

Rather than dwell on missing out on individual accolades, centre-back Godin believes Atleti’s lack of recognition will have a galvanising effect and only make the team fight harder to achieve success.

“Personally, I would have liked to see some of my nominated team-mates win,” he told a media conference. “It would have been fairer.

“The only objective award in the league is the league championship, which is for the team with the most points and that is Atletico Madrid.

“We are used to fighting and battling, like last year. Nothing will sidetrack us from our day-to-day and now we only think of Cordoba.”

Atleti, who are likely to be without Tiago and Cristian Ansaldi (both muscle), head into Saturday’s clash at the Vicente Calderon on the back of three straight wins in all competitions and they sit fifth, just two points adrift of leaders Barcelona.

By contrast Cordoba, who have a doubt over full-back Jose Crespo, find themselves in the bottom three having taken five points from nine league matches and they are yet to win in La Liga.

Godin, though, warned that no match is straight-forward, adding: “To us there are no easy games. All matches are the same. We will try to continue making us stronger in our stadium.”

Cordoba’s poor start to the season saw Albert Ferrer pay the price with his job and he was replaced as head coach by former Valencia boss Miroslav Djukic.

Djukic earned a point in a 1-1 draw with Real Sociedad in his first match in charge last weekend and captain Abel Gomez stated that the team will continue to adapt to his methods.

“Little by little we will be taking on the things that are asked of us, each coach has a kind of training and philosophy,” he said. “We still have room for improvement and working hard we will do that.”

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