16.03.2008 21:48
“We’ve got to keep the faith”
Vanessa Forns
Rijkaard isn’t pleased about the draw with Almería, mostly because Barça managed to get ahead twice.
However he is happy with how hard his team worked, especially when playing with ten men after
Milito was sent off, and he wants his players to continue to believe in themselves.
After the two all draw away at Almería, Barcelona’s coach says it’s a pity his
side couldn’t come away with all three points, especially when they had gone ahead twice in
the game. However he was also full of praise for the way Almería played over the 90 minutes, and
thinks they got even stronger after Milito was sent off when he saw his second yellow. As for the
fact that both of Almeria’s goals came from set-pieces, in Rijkaard’s view
“that’s a question of marking.”
“It’s a pity”
“You always have to look at a game as a whole and Almería are playing really well at
home. They are pretty direct and physically strong. They are always at you and sometimes we found
it hard to keep calm and play positional football,” said Rijkaard. “Yet we still went
ahead and normally if you get two away from home that’s enough. It’s a pity. All the
players worked their socks off. We just have to keep the faith.”
Praise for Almería
FC Barcelona’s coach was lavish in his praise for the way this Sunday’s rivals
played: “The Almería players did a really good job. They played really well and knew exactly
what they wanted to do.” In Frank Rijkaard’s view tonight’s game in the Juegos
del Mediterráneo stadium was “pretty even” and added that “I think a draw was a
fair result.”
Effect of Milito’s sending off
One of the key points in the game was undoubtedly Milito being sent off for two yellow cards.
From then on Almería “really started to put on the pressure” while at the same time the
Barça players “were working hard to hold out and try and close out the game.”
Only looking at Barça
Finally Frank Rijkaard had no comment to make about the points difference between Barça and
Real Madrid but instead preferred to focus exclusively on his own team. “There’s no
point in talking about other teams, and I don’t want to say anything else about them. What is
obvious is that we have to go on working hard and we aren’t giving up on anything.”