Burgos praises ´courageous´ Vilanova

Atletico Madrid assistant German Burgos has paid tribute to the courage of Barcelona coach Tito Vilanova as he battles cancer.

The 44-year-old had surgery on Wednesday after suffering a recurrence of a tumour in his salivary gland.

Atletico players wore shirts that supported Vilanova during the warm up ahead of their game with Celta Vigo on Friday and Burgos explained the decision came after the squad did a similar thing for him when he had a cancer scare of his own.

“I wish the best for him,” Burgos said.

“He is courageous and he suffered the same last year. I passed the same situation because I had a kidney surgery because of cancer.

“We decided to display a shirt because Atletico Madrid players did the same when I went through that pain and I remember when I saw that shirt when I was at the hospital. I was happy. I think the club have done really well.”

Burgos was also full of praise for his side’s performance on the pitch which saw them overcome a stubborn Celta Vigo side 1-0 thanks to a second-half Adrian strike.

“Celta did well at the beginning and their way of playing had an influence on us because we had trouble scoring the first goal, although we tried in the first half,” he said.

“We kept going and in the second half we got our prize with the goal.”

The win ensures Atletico move to within six points of league leaders Barcelona with the Catalans preparing to face Real Valladolid on Saturday.