Marc Carmona: "The team will be mentally ready on Monday"

It has been a long and tough final. No one said that the Liga title would be easy to win for the Azulgranas. This sentiment was what the manager of FC Barcelona Alusport echoed after losing the fourth match of the LNFS series. “ElPozo finished first in the regular season and they have home-court advantage. We have to have the same enthusiasm that they have to win, I don’t believe that we’re so superior to them when it comes to team quality,” said Marc Carmona.

Furthermore, the Barça manager anticipates an “extraordinary match for fans” this coming Monday and he highlighted what Barça must do to win the LNFS: “it all comes down to a game of accuracy and errors, the team that misses the least will win the trophy. Barça will be strong mentally for Monday’s match.”

Analyzing the defeat

After losing 5-4 to ElPozo Murcia in the final seconds of the match, Carmona lamented the team’s defensive lapses that allowed the home team to make a comeback in the final stretch: “we played a good game, but we conceded goals that ended up being decisive. After the 2-3 the match changed, moreover, their third goal was our defensive error: they caught us in a moment where we weren’t focused.”

Finally, the Azulgrana manager congratulated ElPozo for the victory in a match with “a lot of alternatives” and he encouraged his players ahead of the fifth and final match. “We’re aware that we have to improve, we cannot allow easy goals,” said the manager.”

Here are the statements made by the players after the match:

Lin:

“It wasn’t meant to be. The last goal surprised us.”

“We have to admit that we messed up in the plays that led to their goals. We have to look at the errors that we committed and we’ll have to fight if we want his title.”

“We were a bit unlucky. We have to improve, especially on defence, seeing that they have very talented players when it comes to one on ones.”

“We’ve already won in this arena and we’re going to play the fifth match with the intention of winning. Today ElPozo were the just winners.”

“Grello played an amazing game.”

“This doesn’t affect us on the morale level.”

Gabriel:

“We committed a lot of key errors in the match. We can’t allow ourselves to repeat the same mistakes against a team like ElPozo.”

“We’ve already won here and we have the capacity to win here again.”

“We’re a bit fatigued, but it’s the last game of the season and we have to give it all we got.”