Thiago Alcántara put in a fine performance on his first start in a La Liga game for the team against Villarreal on Saturday and after the match he told reporters: “it was a perfect day”.
Valdés and Busquets up for suspension
Víctor Valdés and Sergio Busquets will miss next Saturday’s game against Almeria after they
both saw their fifth yellow at Villarreal– now only Mascherano and Messi are a card away from
suspension.
Thiago has of course been featuring for both the first team and the reserves this season and so
Saturday’s wins had a special importance for him: “we had two more great results this
evening – especially the B team’s, that was maybe even better than Madrid’s
defeat”. The youngster made 123 successful passes from the 136 he attempted and played out
the full 90 minutes, but he was modest about his efforts, claiming: “you could see the
experience of all our players out on the pitch –except for me”.
Below are some of the other players’ post match reactions:
Gerard Piqué
“The goal happened so quickly –I think it hit me on the
chest, I don’t know, maybe on my arm too. It happened so fast I didn’t have time to
think”.
“It’s an eight point lead with eight games left to play… it’s an
important lead, but we have to keep playing as we have been – it’s in our own hands
now, but it’s not impossible for Madrid –it’s not done and dusted yet”.
Víctor Valdés
“We knew that winning this was a big step to retaining the title”.
“I’m happy about how the team played, we played some great football, showed a lot
of intensity and didn’t leave them any space to play in”.
“I swear I didn’t look for that yellow card”.
Andrés Iniesta
“It’s an important step, but there are still a lot of points to play
for. I’d like to congratulate the team for the effort we put in against a very good
side”.
“For us, Victor is number 1. He’s there so often to make great saves
–he’s number 1 for me”.
“It was a difficult ground to win at, because Villarreal played well and had chances to
win the game”.
“Now we have the Champions League and a hard tie, but this win will give us a lot of
confidence”.