Parejo: "The club's rightful place has to be playing in the Champions League every season"

Dani Parejo was on the scoresheet the last time Valencia CF played Valladolid, with an important goal that he celebrated with an embrace of coach Marcelino. Now, on the eve of the second meeting between the two sides, the team captain spoke to VCF MEDIA to express the vital nature of Saturday's LaLiga finale (4:15pm CEST).

"The chance to achieve our objective of getting into the Champions League is in our own hands. A long time ago it was unthinkable that we would be candidates for that -or at least nobody believed it. I think we would all have taken the offer to come into the final game like this," Parejo said of the Matchday 38 contest against La Pucela.

"Valencia CF are one of the four best teams in Spain. I think that the club's rightful place has to be playing in the Champions League every season. I think that needs to be more than sufficient a motive to win on Saturday. A team, entity and club like Valencia CF shouldn't be fighting for any other objective."

The midfielder had taken to social media after the first encounter with this weekend's opponents, with a rallying cry for a side who at the time were 10 points off the Champions League spots.

"We were in a difficult time, in which things weren't turning out as we wanted. But I saw the team train everyday, and the respect and commitment that we had for our job. When you see these types of values everyday, it makes you believe that it would be impossible for the bad run to continue -it had to change, logically. That's what I felt, and I posted that because it's how I saw things. In the end, with time I was proved right."

Parejo and his teammates can guarantee qualification for the Champions League with a win this weekend, whatever the results for the teams around them.