FCBARCELONA.CAT
Main menu
Content menu
Football
09.03.2008 23:50
Rijkaard gutted in defeat but has not lost hope
Vanessa Forns
Despite losing two league games in a row, Frank Rijkaard has not thrown in the towel quite yet and wants his players to keep working with pride and courage.
Visibly affected by the defeat to Villarreal (1-2), the Barça manager was impressed by his team’s fighting spirit over the ninety minutes. In his opinion, the team took too many risks, and as he said “we fought hard for the win and even took risks as we tried to do what we could to make our fans happy. So much work to get no points, it is something we have to digest. It was a shame”.
“We should not give up anything”
There is now an eight point gap between the two teams, but Frank Rijkaard still knows that “there are still 33 points to play for. Of course the gap has widened, but that is no reason to give up” and added that “we should not lose our confidence” and “we have to work with pride and courage”.
Not beaten yet
Rijkaard then went on to say that “nothing is decided in the month of March” and that all the team can do now is keep working and “try to win all the games we have left”. He also insisted that “I won’t speak about individuals or any part of the team. When you don’t score the first goal, everything is more difficult. What we failed to do was make the difference”.
Laporta: “We had a disastrous game”
After losing 2-1 to Villarreal, Joan Laporta accepted that Barça had had a disastrous game. The
Barcelona president also confessed that Villarreal “played better, they had a great
game” and that FC Barcelona “had no excuses”. Laporta feels that Frank
Rijkaard’s side “was not up to the required level in the last two league games”,
in reference to this and last week’s defeat at the Vicente Calderón. But he finished by
saying that “the league is not over yet. There are 33 points left, we are eight off the top,
and we will keep fighting”.
