Lopetegui speaking with Ocampos during the Espanyol game

LOPETEGUI: "WE PAID FOR THE MISTAKES WE MADE"

16/02/2020

The coach thought the decision in the build up to Espanyol's equaliser was very strange

Julen Lopetegui spoke to the media after the draw at home to Espanyol, and immediately spoke about the controversy surrounding the away team's equaliser: "Neither us nor them understood what was happening. It was a strange thing. I thought VAR only intervenes when it's a red card or a penalty, I don't know what else to say. However, we can't hide behind this and we have to realise that things can happen that are out of our control; but they can't take the game away from us in this way".

That being said, he made it clear that everything was in place to turn the game on its head: "I think we did enough to warrant scoring a third goal. They were playing with a man less and we had opportunities to come away with all three points. At the end of the day, we paid for the mistakes we made in the build up to both of their goals. We have to work on this and get better".

To finish off, he realised that they needed to try and rediscover their form from the start of the season: "We're obviously very disappointed, hurt and we all want to change what's happening. The team was on a good run and for one thing or another, we maybe haven't deserved the results we've had in recent weeks. We didn't make that many mistakes in the first half of the season and we need to get back to being defensively solid. Moreover, we need to rediscover once again our goalscoring touch in the top end of the pitch".