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Football

04.02.2007 17:31

"Seeing the attitude of the team we should be happy with a point"

Frank Rijkaard was very happy with the attitude of his players considering the difficulty of the match and the opposition: "Seeing the attitude of the team we should be happy with a point and continue working."


The scoreless draw tonight would suggest it was a boring game without chances but in truth it was quite the opposite. FC Barcelona played a good game against a very tough rival. That's the way Frank Rikjaard saw the game: "It was a difficult game to analyse as both teams very really going for it. Osasuna's play is fairly direct. Seeing the attitude of the team we should be happy with a point and continue working. La Liga is very complicated and every team is capable of beating anyone else."

The Dutch coach emphasised that "the condition of the pitch did not help our style of play". Far from looking for excuses one thing Rikjaard is sure of is that "the team fought hard to try and get a result".

Interchange of positions

Rijkaard was asked about the positions of some his players on the field. Regarding the Márquez-Edmílson pairing, pivot and central defender, the Dutch coach explained that "both can change positions and it worked quite well". Also up front, Ezquerro and Saviola played as centre-forward and left sided winger: "Santi started as a forward with Javier slightly on the left. They played practically as two forwards", Rijkaard went on to explain.

Eto'o, psychological boost

The Barça coach admitted that the return of Eto'o "is important psychologically for the team". But at the same time he said it was important for him to "start getting back into the rhythm bit by bit". Rijkaard, nonetheless, isn't in any hurry for the number '9' to have more game time: "We have to be careful."

Asked about the fact the Barça didn't manage to score, Rikjaard said that el Reyno de Navarra is a difficult place to come: "We would like to have scored a lot of goals but in this game that wasn't easy. I'm not worried about it."

Márquez, substituted as a precaution
The Mexican defender asked to be substituted in the second half, with Motta coming on as replacement. Márquez had some "muscular problems" explained Rikjaard in the press conference, he was substituted "as a precaution".

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