Pellegrini
“Nobody said it was going to be easy. We were up against a team that knocked out Athletic de Bilbao in an away match. We were aware that Eibar would be full of confidence, and we’d need to pull out all the stops to win. They’ve had a great season in the Second B Division so far.”
“I’m pleased with the team’s performance in the match as a whole. I don’t think we deserved to be a goal down at the end of the first half. We were constantly on the attack as they focused ten men at the back. We perhaps lacked a bit of creativity when we conceded the goal, which was why we were unable to equalise before the half-time whistle, despite having a few clear shots at goal. We changed our dynamic in the second half, and were much quicker with the ball and created many more chances to score. Although it wasn’t our best performance in the first half, it certainly wasn’t out worst.”
“Eibar worked hard and showed great perseverance in the first half in their determination to defend their goal advantage. We lacked pace and imagination during the first 45 minutes, but we made up for it in the second half, particularly in the final 20 minutes of play!”
“Diego was injured, but we’re hoping it’s nothing serious.”
“It wasn’t easy for us, but we were patient in our search for an equaliser. It was tough being a goal down so early on, particularly as Eibar only had one real shot at goal in the first half. We’d spoken before the match about the difficulty of the other team scoring first , but we were determined to turn the game around and we performed well during the 90 minutes, and got a great result.”
“Anything can happen in football. We’ve now got to focus on Sunday’s League match against Barcelona, which will mark the end of the first round of the season. It’s such an important match for us, and hopefully we can get at least another point, or ideally three. We’ll be determined to win this game from the start. With regards to the quarter finals of the Copa del Rey, we’re hoping that we’ll face Barcelona, which will demand all our concentration and capability on the pitch. In these two-legged matches I hope we can come up against Barça as equals, and with a bit of luck we’ll beat them!”