Statements from Pellegrini:
Dedicated to José Carlos Pérez
“It’s been a difficult week, despite this victory, which we dedicate to José Carlos Pérez. I feel a great responsibility, I’ve known few people like him. The team needs to concentrate on more intensive play, Caparrós’ team plays a much more intensive game. We have lost points in the last few minutes of matches, but the championship is tough and you can’t underestimate your opponents. We’ll keep fighting till the end to classify for European competition”.
European positions
“It’s not easy, we’ve improved as a team, and today we’re just a point away from the Champions, whereas this time last year we were 23 points away. But we’ve also made mistakes and lost important points on games we should have won. We’re playing well defensively and scoring goals, but to be in seventh, eighth or fourth place, isn’t any more significant in the evaluation of the team”.
MCF-Mallorca
“Mallorca had clearer chances at goal, despite them scoring in the 4th minute. Perhaps the draw was the reason for us to stop attacking play, but we got back to form in the second half. The points we’ve lost in recent matches have always been in the last minutes due to a loss of concentration, it’s not easy to win away games, the home side tends to impose their own style of football; in some respects we’ve moved forward, but negative results makes us open to negative criticism. I don’t think we were playing to our full capacity in the first half, but in the second we showed a good defensive display. We’ve lost points in away games, but not because of bad play. We were attacking well and created goal chances, even though we were at a disadvantage early on in the game, and played well for the 90 minutes against the hard-working Mallorca”.
Recio – in the starting 11
“Recio hasn’t been playing from the start in the last few matches, and it was important that he was on the pitch from the beginning today. The most important thing is that the team works well, and everyone pulls together”.