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Cech - My take on that Nacho backpass

Petr Cech
Petr Cech

The second half against Sunderland nearly got off to a disastrous start for us on Tuesday, as Nacho Monreal sent a firm backless towards Petr Cech.

It left the legendary goalkeeper scrambling across goal to force the ball away from goal - only to concede an indirect free kick in the six-yard box.

Cech was asked about the incident after the match, and this is what he had to say:

on getting the job done in the end…
Yes, they made it very difficult for us and in the first half we actually started okay but it was too slow for them. They were organised to get in their positions and to get back behind the ball before the opportunities and obviously our chances were not happening. We couldn’t find the opening goal and as long as it was 0-0 they had their chance for a good result. Like every Premier League team, no matter if you are already relegated or not, you play for your fans for the pride and they did that.

on Nacho’s backpass…
Well it’s a mis-kick because obviously he wanted to pass it a completely different way. I was not sure whether it goes in or wide [if I didn’t touch it] because you don’t want to take any chances so I touched it and helped it a little bit wide, which I thought was going to be a corner because I didn’t catch the ball and I didn’t win a backpass. I don’t know, a lot of things can happen! I thought it was mis-kick and it would’ve been a corner, in the end the referee decided for a backpass which he has the right to do. The situation became a bit confusing because it is very hard, you have it on the goal-line so where do you put the players. I know the rule in this way says you need to be 10 yards or on the goal-line and everybody was everywhere so I think it was kind of a strange situation and I have to say we dealt with it well and that is the main important thing.

on it being a quiet atmosphere…
Well, I think the game was postponed, so for example I had 15 tickets where the people couldn’t turn up because they obviously bought the flights for the other game which was due to be at the weekend.

on whether his tickets were for the second tier…
Yes, I think it’s due to you not only have people coming from London. People are working and people are committed to it and obviously when they buy the ticket the game gets postponed, sometimes it’s hard for them to turn up and I think this is always when you have postponed the game, not everybody can turn up. I think that was the case, but the people who came up, they tried to create the atmosphere and as a player, obviously you don’t look what’s in the stands. You are there to win and need to win and it was a crucial game for us. We needed to give ourselves a chance and we gave ourselves a chance.

on the final day…
Well, everything is possible but we have a difficult game ourselves. Obviously they are a team who fights for the Europa League, obviously, so we try to get as many points and even if they can’t reach it, they will come here and they will try to finish the last game of their season. So it’s always important for everybody but as I said, we gave ourselves another chance. If we win our game, we do our job then we can sit and wait.