Barcelona coach, Argentine Gerardo "Tata" Martino expressed
Tuesday refusing to surrender in the Spanish league for football, despite a
drop in performance and results and the place of the team in the league table.
Martino said on the eve of the face Manchester City in the
last 16 Champions League stadium Camp Nou, "there are still available opportunities,
and my team has the courage, but they should not forget the loss (in front of
Valladolid 1-0 in the league) in order to qualify for the quarter-finals of Champions
League, and forget about the result leg, "which ended in victory for Barca
two straight on the Etihad Stadium.
The decline in Barcelona to third in La Liga after falling
against a team struggling for survival and to stay away from the centers of the
landing, the defeat is the second of the Catalan team during the last three
rounds, to move away four points behind arch-rivals Real Madrid, who ascended
to the top of the table (67 points).
However, Martino stressed that he feels strong, despite the
criticism, "I never felt that my strength has weakened because we have a
lot. Do not rule out the chances of teams in the league, also playing currently
in the 1/8 round of the Champions League final and reached the cup final. And
if I felt weak in spite of all this I will go to specialization in another
area. "
He added "i do not plan for anything about my future; I
did not lose anything so far in the season."
And the weak profitability of the two stars Lionel Messi and
Brazilian Neymar da Silva when playing together, he noted, "In fact, Messi
and Neymar played together a few games throughout the year for various reasons,
and in the games that participated where they together were doing well, but
recently not received good contact, but they are among the best players in the
world.”
On his opinion about the poor results recently, Martino
ruled to have low motivation, stressing "We have bad games and we made
several mistakes, but no shortage of confidence and motivation, I do not think
that there is a problem in the team."