Sunderland's Champions League Final

Last updated : 27 April 2013 By Tott Dixon - Seaham

Paolo Di Canio: "If we win on Monday, we stay up. I have told my players, Monday is a Champions League final.

"Since the first day we joined together at the beginning of the week, I told them, 'Take this week as the most important week of the season because if we win on Monday, we stay up and we do it three games in advance.

"'It's probably not mathematical, but we would be very close, so it means that you are capable'.

"I told my players, 'When I came in here, we were nearly strangled - you have turned the season in three games here. You did that, you were capable of winning two in a row.

"'If we win the next one, in three weeks, you have turned completely the season'.

"It doesn't mean that now we have become a Champions League side, but [victory at Villa would] mean that with three games to go, we could finish in a good position.

"Obviously, it's step by step, but I told them, 'Think about Monday as a Champions League final, work as hard as you did in the last few weeks because there is a big opportunity to stay in this league with three games to go.

"'Enjoy the last three games and try to get the maximum points we can'."