GARCIA: "IT'S STILL IN OUR HANDS"
The main positive from Tuesday evening for Rudi Garcia was the 1-1 draw between BATE Borisov and Bayer Leverkusen that keeps his side's hopes of qualification alive. Despite the 6-1 defeat at the hands of Barcelona at Camp Nou, Roma are still in second place in Group E of the Champions League and a victory against Borisov on 9 December would ensure qualification to the Round of 16.
"The good news had arrived even before kick-off," the Giallorossi coach declared in the post-match press conference. "The draw between Borisov and Leverkusen leaves fate in our hands. We needed a miracle to win tonight and we didn't get one. A team that beats Real Madrid 4-0 and is playing at top form is an unbeatable machine. They are out of this world and you can't play against them right now."
Were the goals you conceded a fair reflection of the game?
"It doesn't change anything, we will need to beat BATE if we want to qualify. Barcelona have fantastic players and scored some great goals. Suarez's strike is a good example – you can't do anything about that. I'm not worried at all, obviously we don't like to lose in this fashion, but tonight's defeat has nothing to do with the game against Bayern Munich last year. We arrived in Barcelona fully aware of the task facing us. Even if Edin Dzeko had taken that chance in the first half, we still would have lost."
What could you have done differently?
"Perhaps we could have scored early on and been a bit tighter, but we tried everything. We tried to press them quickly and that led to Dzeko's chance after the corner. Then we tried to shut up shop, but even though we had 11 men behind the ball we still conceded exactly the same kind of goal. Once again, even if Edin had scored, we would have lost all the same. We could have made better use of the ball in the first half and we gave it away too softly. I can't blame the players for anything, aside from not using the ball better and scoring a few goals in the opening 45. Winning tonight was an impossible task."
What differences were there compared to the first game?
"Tonight's result is down to Barcelona's performance and this just goes to show how well we did in the game in Rome. They are playing out of this world at the moment and you didn't need tonight's performance to know that they're a great side. We are quite a way off them and if they're not the best in the world, then they are right up there. I'm upset and angry because the scoreline was huge, but ultimately we need to concentrate on winning against Atalanta in Serie A and then against Borisov to qualify in the Champions League. I didn't play Daniele De Rossi and I took off Radja Nainggolan, who were both one booking away from a suspension. I was also able to hand some rest to Miralem Pjanic and Alessandro Florenzi. These are the few positives we can take away from this evening."
(Photo LaPresse)
