It looked like Barça were cruising after establishing a two-goal lead in the first half at Anoeta. Xavi said “we made two daft mistakes in defence and they cost us dearly. Two isolated errors. From there on, their confidence grew and they were more aggressive. We weren’t expecting it, we had the game under control until then and were looking to finish off the job.” Pedro spoke on similar lines. “We had got the game on good track in the first half but then we let in two goals and things got complicated. We should have scored more after making it 2-0, and we had chances to do it”.

The following are other comments made by FC Barcelona players:

Víctor Valdés

“They got two goals to tie the game. Was it to our discredit or their credit? A bit of both, That’s part of the game.”

“It shows nothing is easy. You have to concentrate for 90 minutes because it’s no good to dominate the whole first half but not the second.”

“We had it all under control in the first half, playing well from the back, and holding onto possession.”

“It has been a rather odd day. I’m happy to have beaten Zubizarreta’s number of matches, but I’d prefer to have won.”

“Now we have to think about the Champions League.”

Dani Alves

“It’s hard to explain, but two mistakes by us cost us the match. It was a good wake up call. We have to be more careful.”

“Football has been tough to us today, because they equalised with the only two chances they had.”

“We’re not panicking, but we know that to repeat our successes we have to repeat what we did before, and that’s not easy.”

“Luckily, we have a very entertaining game on Tuesday.”