Player Reactions: Real Madrid CF 2-1 FC Barcelona
Jordi Alba
On the match itself Alba felt that a draw would have been a fair result, but correctly pointed out that Barça is suffering from “set pieces and long balls“. He did however point out that the club still has “a good advantage over Atlético and Real Madrid.” He stressed that the team “needs to leave this behind and focus on the match against Deportivo and Milan,” recognizing that improvement is necessary, saying, “we have to give it our all and even more so against Milan. We have confidence in ourselves.”
He was asked about the gesture he made to the crowd after Messi’s goal. It was not a middle finger to the Madrid fans but rather a use of his index finger “to show that Messi is the best in the world and that he deserves the praise.”
Gerard Piqué
After one of his better performances in a while, with multiple excellent tackles and blocks, Piqué was both astute and honest in his analysis. While he said they improved from the Tuesday defeat, he was clear that the team “has to give a lot more.” He continued by noting: “we weren’t fluid like we usually are and we’re missing certain things. We’ve had these bad moments when we won a lot of titles, but we have to end this poor streak as soon as possible … I don’t think it’s the right moment to criticize our style of play, we’ve secured a lot of good results with it.”
Despite being clearly disappointed and frustrated and refusing to use the referee as an excuse, he injected some optimism in his comments by saying that the team is “confident that [they'll] eliminate Milan.”
Jordi Roura
Roura came out with the same themes he has used after all the other recent defeats. He called the match “complicated” and praised the team for “working hard” and their “attitude“. However he acknowledged that “the result is what counts“.
Despite the intense recent schedule, Roura refuted any claims it’s a fatigue issue, saying that “I don’t think we have a physical problem. Despite the result, we had our chances to win points.”
He talked about the intention to control the match because “Real Madrid’s style is to take advantage of errors,” yet refused to mention the complete lack of penetration or even attempt to penetrate during the 2nd half.
Lastly, while not as dismissive about the obvious penalty as Piqué, he said, “the images are sufficiently clear and eloquent.”
Andoni Zubizarreta
Despite the way the 2nd half played out, Zubizarreta said that they “were not looking for the draw” and that the “intent is always to win.” But he also marginalized the effect of the result on the league as a whole, saying that “in a competition you sometimes win and sometimes your competitors do,” but that “the Liga is very long and we’ll try to overcome these circumstances.”
He commended Valdés for his “exceptional” game and said that the team struggled to link up with Messi.
On the non-call he said “the images are clear“, but finished with “we’re a club that is used to difficult moments, but we never give up. We always compete, that’s our history.”
No comments:
Post a Comment