MADRID, 6 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The coach of Real Sociedad, Imanol Alguacil, has assured that they will draw “more strength than ever” from the ovation that the fans have given them at the Reale Arena, after their elimination in the round of 16 of the Champions League when they fell in the second leg against the Paris Saint-Germain (1-2), to “respond in the 12 remaining games” of LaLiga EA Sports and return to European competition.
“Surely we are paying the toll of having had a brutal group stage, of reaching the Cup semi-finals and of being in LaLiga competing with those at the top. We are paying it now. I am not given to looking for excuses, but with many injured, with many casualties, with people with their national team… I think that what the team has done so far is still more valuable, but we don’t want to stop,” he declared at a press conference.
In this sense, he warned that they will fight to be in continental competition next year. “We want to continue dreaming of nights like this and for that what we have to do now is draw more strength than ever from the ovation that the public has given us and respond in the 12 remaining games,” he said. “We are going to fight as hard as possible in these 12 games to re-enter Europe,” he added.
“I am not going to stop trusting, working, trying to improve, because we have to do it to be able to return to Europe again, and it is in our hands. It is the toll of having competed to be alive in the three competitions; in one We were on the verge of the final, on penalties, in the other one we were eliminated in the round of 16 by the candidate to win the ‘Champions’… I am not going to regret having bet on all three,” he continued.
The Basque coach assured that despite the team’s “very bad streak,” “there haven’t been that many bad games.” “I hold on to the fact that today against PSG, with the tie being as it was, the team has remained on its feet, has continued looking for the rival goal and has generated five very clear scoring chances,” he expressed. “In the second half we showed character, pride, we had five very clear chances, it is true that with the tie already resolved, but that also has to be done,” he highlighted.
In addition, Alguacil explained that they will be “aware” as time passes “of the value of what this team has done.” “The group stage they have done is impressive and I think it is also impressive how they behaved in this tie against PSG. And it is true that we were far away, especially once we conceded the first goal today,” he said.
“It’s not just the physical power, the quality they have, but the brutal defensive work they did today. There are very few teams that can do it and that’s surely why we haven’t been able to get our hands on them like we did there, especially in the first hour. I have no words to describe what this team has done in ‘Champions’ and surely with the passage of time we will give it its value,” he continued.
He also confessed that he left the field “excited” by the applause from the fans. “That farewell, that ovation, is the result of what these fans have been experiencing in recent years. Surely we are going to give a lot of value to what this team has done in this ‘Champions’ over time. We have been eliminated by a “PSG, which is currently a serious candidate to reach the final. I left the field super proud, very excited by what the players have done and especially by that great final ovation from the public,” he said.
Finally, regarding PSG, consider that they are a clear candidate to win the tournament. “If he plays like he played today, he is on par with Real Madrid and City, I have no doubt, for quality, for power and for the defensive work they have shown today,” he explained.
“If they play at this level, PSG is a serious candidate to win the ‘Champions’. It’s not the quality, it’s not the physique, it’s the way of working, the way of defending, the way of pressing that PSG has shown today is complicated. If today we have not seen a good version of Real Sociedad with the ball, it is, especially in that first half, because of the great pressure that PSG has put in. We are not at our best either, surely we could have competed a little better; Three weeks ago we competed against them at home,” he concluded.