BARCELONA, 20 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –
FC Barcelona goalkeeper and captain Marc-André Ter Stegen said that he did not understand Eric Garcia in the action that, in the 11th minute of Barça’s defeat against Monaco in the first matchday of the Champions League, ended with the expulsion of his teammate and that left a group that, according to the German, stood up to him, at a disadvantage.
“We didn’t understand each other well in this situation and I feel bad for Eric, because it hurt him. We had to play 80 minutes with one less player. We didn’t understand each other, it doesn’t matter what happened in the end. But it shouldn’t have happened to any of us,” he said in statements to Movistar+.
For Ter Stegen, this type of action is “just football”. “This defeat hurts because, with 10 men on the pitch, we stood up and tried to get at least one point. We didn’t have the game under control, no. But we stood up, in the end by a goal, the second, which wasn’t deserved… You’re left with the bad feeling of not having taken any points,” he stressed.
“We knew they were going to put more pressure on us by playing with one more player, we wanted to close the spaces and that worked quite well for us to a certain extent. But they scored the second goal without much play (by Monaco),” he said.
Looking ahead to Barça in the competition, he is clear that they must continue fighting and that, now, the most important thing is to put their minds back on LaLiga EA Sports, which they lead with five wins in five games, and on being able to win at the Estadio de la Cerámica.
“In the Champions League you always have to win and that is always our objective. We are going to try to win the second game, at home. We want the victory, but now the focus is on resting and playing a good game in Villarreal,” he said.