Marc Cucurella is settling well into life in England and is enjoying his first taste of festive football.
The 23-year-old is used to a winter break in Spain, where he played for Barcelona and Getafe, but has always wanted to play over Christmas.
“Last year when I had a Christmas break I was at home and said to my wife that I would like to play on Boxing Day once in my life because it’s special and this year I had the opportunity to play.
“It’s different in this country. You don’t have days off over Christmas and you are training all the time. It’s amazing though because the fans are very happy. We played at home against Brentford and the atmosphere was fantastic.”
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The wing-back was pleased to see 2021 rounded off with a win over the Bees followed by a draw at Chelsea.
“We play very good football. It’s true, in the winless run the team didn’t play as good as we could have, we didn’t score enough and lost some matches but now we have a good moment.
“We need to work hard and work together. We have a good team and it’s possible for us to beat a lot of other teams in this league.”
Cucurella contributed his first assist in Albion colours with a pinpoint cross for Danny Welbeck to nod in against Chelsea.
“I have played a lot of minutes, but it was my first assist. I am happy to help the team and now I have to carry on working hard because I want to provide more assists, which means we will be scoring more goals.”
The defender is now keen to avenge the defeat Albion suffered to today’s hosts Everton at the beginning of the season and get 2022 off to the perfect start.
“We lost at home to them, but we are in a good place and we know it’s an important game. We go to Everton to win this game because we need these points to stay high up in the table.”