Daily Mail · Mar 3, 2017
Middlesbrough must treat every game like a cup final to avoid relegation, insists manager Aitor Karanka
Aitor Karanka has ordered Middlesbrough to approach each of their last 12 Premier League games as if they were cup finals in the battle for survival.
Boro have made it to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, where they will face Manchester City next weekend, but head coach Karanka wants his players to treat each of their remaining league games as sudden-death clashes.
The first of those will come at Stoke on Saturday, with the Teessiders clear of the relegation zone only on goal difference and having not tasted top-flight victory since December 17.