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07.03.2007 01:00
Rijkaard highlights his players’ pride
With a serious look on his face yet calm in the face of defeat, Frank Rijkaard said that more than anything he had been impressed “by the pride my players showed”, and accepted that this tie was lost two weeks ago in Barcelona.
Frank Rijkaard was honourably willing to accept that the 2004-05 Champions League winners, Liverpool, “played a great game. They were very well organised at the back and played very direct football to create danger. We played the ball around well to get into positions, but we needed other things to work. They started very strong, and were very decisive, very direct. I think it must have been a very attractive game for any neutral spectators.”
“We need to recover”
Frank Rijkaard was keenest to take what positive things there were on offer after the defeat. “From now on, if we play like that against anybody, with that pride we have shown as a team, then there is more of a chance that luck will be with you, if you don’t do that, it is all so much harder. Tonight was a bad night, but we need to find our strength to recover and carry on. There is a lot to play for yet.”
“I can only say that I enjoyed the fight, the pride and the attitude the team showed out there. We accept our elimination, but there is no time in high level football, and we have to recover. I repeat that I just think that Barça have played with pride and we won at a difficult ground, perhaps we were a bit lucky, and I saw the way the fans reacted and applauded the players. They have knocked us out and now we have to recover as soon as possible”.
Decisive football
Rijkaard explained his side’s elimination by describing the decisive nature of the way the English side plays and their direct approach to the game. He said “I think I can summarise by saying it was a vibrant game, at the very highest level. They were more decisive than us in the final stages of the game and we could not narrow the gap with goals. One thing is evaluating the way we played, but you can’t knock the players for their attitude. The result was fair. We were always going to be dragging the result from Barcelona with us. They had the mentality and the desire.”
Eto’o played the agreed time
Rijkaard commented that it had been agreed before the game that Samuel Eto’o would start the
game but come off during the second half. “We had already decided what we were going to do
with Eto’o” he said. “I think he made a huge effort and knew how to work hard for
his team-mates.”
