First team

MACHÍN: 'WE MUSTN'T THINK WE'RE ANYTHING MORE THAN WHAT WE WERE A COUPLE OF HOURS AGO'

20/09/2018

Pablo Machín didn't want to get carried away, remaining humble after the rout against Standard

Pablo Machín's press conference was full of humility, not wanting to get carried away after the rout against Standard this Thursday on the first matchday of the Europa League group stage: 'We mustn't be too dramatic in defeat, nor too euphoric in victory. We're very happy for our fans and we want to make them happy. We had a lot of chances today, we were clinical and we achieved something that didn't seem too easy at the start of the match. Our opponent was in the Champions League knock-out round and you don't get that handed to you. Mission accomplished and now we focus on the next match, for which we'll need to make some changes,' the manager added regarding Amadou's injury in the first half.

He offered more information about Amadou, saying 'he has a dislocation, similar to Escudero. As soon as they took him off he went under the knife as they couldn't fix the dislocation. It's very strange. These injuries will affect us, but we will try to not think about them too much. But it's true they're players in important positions. Escudero is the perfect wing-back, while Mercado is super on the right of a 3-man backline. We hope they recover as quick as possible.

Returning to sporting issues, Machín underlined that he enjoyed that the team 'demonstrated right from the off that they wanted it. We started well with an early goal which calmed us down, and when things got worse, the team was able to react in the next minute. In the second half, we were much more superior and in control, which was essential so that the game didn't become scrappy. But I insist, these goals mustn't cover anything up, we mustn't think we're anything more than what we were a couple of hours ago.