FCBARCELONA.CAT

24.11.2008 12:56

“We didn’t get the three points, but we have to keep going”

Jordi Clos

Víctor Valdés spoke about the Getafe game and the team’s preparations for their visit to Sporting Lisbon in Portugal. “Champions League games are always pretty tense affairs,” he said.

Despite playing well, this Sunday Barça let slip two points at home to Getafe (1-1). The team is still the League leader but the players know they missed out on a good opportunity to extend their lead. Speaking at a press conference, Víctor Valdés said that “we didn’t win and get the three points, but we have to keep going.”

Getafe were good

“Getafe were well positioned on the pitch, very disciplined and took advantage of any mistakes to hit us on the break,” said the Barça keeper. Messi being absent was not, however, the reason why a run of nine League wins on the bounce came to an end. “Leo’s really important and when he doesn’t play of course he’s missed,” commented Valdés. “But there’s no question of depending on individuals when all the players have the quality to lead the team.”

Media critic

As far as Víctor Valdés is concerned, the draw is no big deal. “We weren’t so great beforehand and we aren’t so bad now,” he argued. Talking about the media reaction, he commented that “People like to have a pop when you have a minor slip-up, when recently the front pages were full of praise.”

Champions League tension

Barça’s next game is on Wednesday away at Sporting Lisbon in Portugal in a crucial game to decide who tops Champions League group C. “Champions League games are always pretty tense affairs,” said Valdés. “We’ll be going head-to-head for top spot and we want to be first to get a theoretically better draw in the last 16.”

When asked about Real Madrid, he said they couldn’t be in a crisis as “they’ve picked up three points which means they must be doing something right.”