FCBARCELONA.CAT

14.06.2007 15:04

Thuram: “There’s one match left and everything is possible”

David Puig

Barça’s French international defender told a Camp Nou press conference on Thursday that the title race will go down to the final whistle of the final match: “Football is incredible and you can’t say that winning is impossible”.

Everything’s possible in football and this wouldn’t be the first time that a league title has been won by a team going into the final match trailing in second or third place. Lilian Thuram told reporters today: “The league isn’t over yet. There’s one match left and football is incredible. There’s nothing decided and we can’t say that winning the league is impossible”. Thuram won the Italian league in the last match of the season while playing for Juventus: “Inter were the leaders and we were second. In the last match, Inter only had to win their match to be champions but they slipped up and we got the three points and were proclaimed league champions”.

Respect for Mallorca and Gimnàstic

Thuram also emphasised that it would be dangerous to underestimate Mallorca (who play Real Madrid in the Bernabeu) and Gimnàstic, Barça’s opponent in Tarragona’s Nou Estadi: “If I were playing for Mallorca I would do everything possible to get a good result”. He also said that he understood perfectly that Gimnàstic manager Paco Flores is especially keen to beat Barça: “It’s perfectly normal that the manager of any team should want to beat one of the big clubs like Barça. These victories give you prestige and nobody should be offended by that”.

An evaluation of the season

Whatever happens on Sunday, Thuram believes the season cannot be classed as a failure: “After winning two league titles and the Champions League, it’s very difficult to repeat those successes for a third season. So I don’t think that not winning this league would be a failure. A team can’t always be perfect and win all the matches or win league titles by an eight-point margin. The more titles you win, the more difficult it becomes to repeat the success”.

On a personal level, Thuram is happy with his first season with Barça: “I started off playing very little and that was normal. I had arrived at a championship-winning team and it was difficult for the manager to make changes. Then, little by little, I started getting into the team and playing more until now I’m playing more regularly. I’m doing very well and I intend to see out my contract and continue next season”.