Rubén Baraja, coach of Valencia, admitted that his team “lacked freshness and energy” in defeat (1-0) against Mallorca at Son Moix stadium and he categorically denied that his players had jumped onto the playing field without ambition and accepted the draw as good.
“We had the ambition to win but things don’t always go the way you want. We came looking for a third victory, but we find ourselves in a very close gamewith few situations to find the goal”, explained Baraja.
“They got the necessary success to get early on the scoreboard and we, when we had our chances, like one in the first half for Diego and another in the second for Justin (Kluivert) we didn’t really have it. That was the difference in a very difficult match against a team like Mallorca, which allows you almost nothing, which defends well and then comes out with speed on the counters”, he added.
The coach of the Valencian team insisted that the difference in the match was made by Muriqi’s goal. “The rival is playing and now we have made an uncomfortable game, it is difficult to find a way to put yourself ahead on the scoreboard. The difference is the action of the goal,” he said.
Baraja also spoke about what happened the previous day against Real Madrid and the shouts of racist content against the Brazilian Vinicius Júnior. “We have expressed our rejection of that situation on a lot of occasions. From then on I will no longer find excuses for external things. We have to be focused on our path and we know it will be very hard. The path now is our game is on Sunday against Espanyol. This is a final where we will need our men as before to try to get the three points of silence. There is no time to complain or find excuses. We must reset and focus on the game against Espanyol”, comment.
Asked about the influence of closing of the Mario Kempes stand at the Mestalla in the ‘final’ against Espanyol, Rubén Baraja responded: “I’ve already said what I thought about the sanction. I imagine that the club will create this kind of situation so that they give us the possibility to make our fans happy. on Sunday in that tier, which is very important for us. We will try to find the appropriate legal channels to find that possibility”.
Source: La Verdad
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