“I have repeated many times before, that this season’s championship will be a very difficult one. However, we are a team that fights to the very last minutes and that’s why we are the champions. Today, things were tough for us. We were being pressured from the very first minute and when we conceded the goal things got even harder. Xanthi played very well today. We kept struggling until the end and we owe that to our fans, who stood once again by our side and supported us during the entire match.”
As an answer to whether he considers this win a boost for his team’s confidence, Mr. Valverde said:
“Of course it is. It would be very bad if we lost a second home match. Especially for our fans, thank to who we won. The hard part was to net the first goal. After that, we knew a second one was coming but the more time goes by the more nervous you get.”
About Franco Costanzo, coach Valverde said: “I would like to ask the fans to stop criticizing our goalkeeper so much and booing him. The goal we conceded was a beautiful one from Xanthi’s part and it was not by his mistake.”
