Alves: “We're confident, but we know how hard it's going be”

After the match against Espanyol, Dani Alves talked about the usual difficulty Barça have in defeating Espanyol at Cornellà-El Prat. “It’s hard to win here because of who we play against. They apply a lot of pressure and they are intense in their approach to the game. We knew that it would be difficult.” With that said, he went on to highlight Barça’s good performance against their city rivals: “We played a great first half. We gave it our all.”

The Brazilian also talked about his team’s good fortune in La Liga. “We’re doing well and we’re confident, but we know how hard it’s going to be. We are ready to fight until the end.” He added: “We never lost our intensity, our rivals play football too – they are playing for their lives in this competition, it makes it all very difficult. Barça may not win all their games comfortably, sometimes we can, other times we cannot,” said the Brazilian.

Sergio: 

“It was a very intense derby for both teams.”

“It’s an important victory because it keeps us in the fight for the league.”

“We’ve turned the league around. We were in a difficult situation two weeks ago, now things are better.”

Mascherano:

“It’s a derby, Espanyol always obligate you to be at your best. I think we played well and now we have to try to win our remaining games.”