Jonas Eidevall suffered his first defeat as head coach on Tuesday night, as we were beaten 4-1 by Barcelona in our group stage opener.
It was a frustrating evening against the reigning champions - but our head coach believes that it was a valuable experience and learning curve for his staff and players.
Eidevall faced the media after the final whistle and here’s what he had to say:
on the decision to change our front three early in the second half…
It was a scenario we had in mind before the game but you have to keep your options open when you play the game but at that time of the game we felt it would give us a bit more energy and helped us to press them with a bit more intensity.
on whether he expected to be pinned back…
We didn’t expect it, no, Barcelona played very, very well today and they play in a way that means they deny you space and time with the ball and there were a few occasions when we found some spaces. In the second half we found spaces many more times and we gave them some problems but they are a team that is better than any other opponent we have played this season. But we will learn from it fo the future and it will raise our standards and we will be better.
on what his played have learned from the game…
I learned that we have a team that never gives up, it was a very tough game and we probably couldn’t have played a better team. We take the way we played in the second half, it’s a tough result to take but I am really proud that we gave our best for the whole game. This is a standard for how good we need to be on the ball to play out from their press and we can learn from that and bring it to training as the standard and use it as a catalyst.
on how Barcelona were able to dominate the game…
They have a lot of great players but the difference is that they are a really good team and what makes them a really good team is that they have really good players on the wing one on one, like Hansen and Martens. They also have really good players in midfield and they can break lines and they have really fast players like Oshoala who can beat you with runs in behind. Most teams can’t hurt you in so many ways and that is one of Barca’s biggest strengths, they can punish you in different ways, which makes it very difficult to stop them.
on how he reflects on the game…
As a coach you always try to find solutions and you also try to instil belief in your players. It is small margins in games like this and the decision making needs to be so good. It doesn’t work for me to scream and direct the players from the sidelines because if you’re half a second too late when you make a pressing run, they play the ball into the space behind and they are passed you. But I am really proud of my players, they never gave up and we will learn from this going forward.
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