Godin: Difficult but optimistic

Diego Godin says while reaching the Champions League knockouts will be ‘difficult’ for Atletico Madrid after drawing with Qarabag, “we’re optimistic.”

Atleti must now win their final three games in Group C to be certain of a place in the last 16, and Godin affirmed “we believe in ourselves”, although he accepted their lack of goals was a cause for concern.

“Feelings? Ones of powerlessness after not being able to score,” the defender said after the game.

“We tried, we looked for [openings] and created chances like at Roma, but it wasn’t possible and we leave with a bitter taste in our mouths because we could’ve won the match.

“Qualification? It’s difficult, but we’re optimistic and we believe in ourselves. As long as there are chances [of going through], we’re going to fight for it.

“We have to play against this team again and win, as well as beat Roma. As long as we’re relying on ourselves, we’ll be optimistic and we’ll fight for [qualification].

“Anxiety about not scoring? It gets to a point when you can’t find a goal or a way to open your opponents’ defence, and you get nervous.

“Those shots that the goalkeeper caught is a symptom of nervousness over scoring a goal.

“We had chances, and if we’d put them away, we’d be talking about something else.

“I’d be more worried if we didn’t have any shots at goal. We only did so a few times, but they were clear-cut.

“The problem belongs to us all. Finding the way forward and working harder is something for ourselves, the Coach and everyone else.

“If we don’t believe in ourselves or our Coach, we’ll be in trouble.

“Draw? I don’t know if it’s one of our most disappointing results, but a goal would’ve opened the game.

“They only had one shot at goal, although it’s true that they did dominate for a spell. That’s football.

“They played their game, but we couldn’t find the key to open the game. We wanted to win, but now it depends on us winning the games we have coming up.”

Tags Diego Godin Qarabag
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