FCBARCELONA.CAT

26.02.2007 16:16

“Everything that was said this week was a motivation for me”

Against Athletic Bilbao we saw the best of Barça again. A special mention goes to Ronaldinho, who was especially motivated after all the talk of his being overweight this week.

Overweight? Out of form?. Ronaldinho proved against Bilbao that there is nothing to worry about. He posted one of his best performances of his career, and claims that the criticism only served to motivate him more than ever. He hit the post twice, once from a free kick and another when he ran through a whole group of defenders and put his effort just over Aranzubia; he laid on the second goal for Eto’o and was the author of several other specular plays. All the Brazilian failed to do was score and that was his only disappointment. “Today was my son’s birthday” he said. “And I wanted to score and do a special celebration”.

The following are some of the most interesting comments made by the players after the game:

Ronaldinho

“I am very happy with the win, Eto’o returning and the way the team played so well. All that was missing was a goal. They worked well and now we just need to keep going forwards.”

“Whenever I finish a game I always swap shirts with somebody. This week there have been a few stories about me being fat, but I feel fine and have no problem taking my shirt off. In fact, all that was said this week has helped to make me a better player.”

“I never go onto the pitch assuming I am going to score. My job is to lay on assists for the others and to enjoy myself. But today being my son’s birthday I wanted to score and do a special celebration.”

“It was very important for the team to have Eto’o back. He is our reference up front. Me and he know each other very well and with just one glance we know what we need to do. It is very important to have him fully fit.”

“We know we have a difficult month ahead and that winning today was important. Now we have Zaragoza and turning the tie around is going to be difficult. There is still some time before the Sevilla match and we have to take each match as it comes.”

“Every day that goes by I am surer that I will be here for many more years. The people love me and I am sure that things will work out well.”

Iniesta

“We needed the win today, especially to clean up our image. We played a good game and now we need this improvement to carry over to Zaragoza, or it won’t have served any purpose whatsoever.”

“Eto’o is out of this world and showed that again today. Samu transits so many things and the team felt that in a positive sense.”

Gio

“I think we played a good game. In the first half we got three goals and we played well in the second too. The most important thing was getting the three points.”

“Now we have some difficult weeks and today’s result helps make us optimistic going into the Zaragoza game.”

“I think Eto’o looked fine. He is working very hard in training and today he scored a great goal.”