Albert Riera has revealed how the sheer look of disappointment on his team mates’ faces following Saturday’s goalless draw at Stoke fired his belief that this could be Liverpool’s season.
Liverpool failed to break down a stubborn and resilient Stoke side for the second time in five months with Steven Gerrard coming closest to breaking the deadlock for the Reds when he hit the woodwork twice during the closing stages of the game.
Riera is in no doubt that the Reds have the character to respond to the setback in the right way and has vowed to remember the feeling of dejection he felt at the final whistle as a spur for the rest of the campaign.
“Saturday showed me the character of the team,” said the left winger.
“When I walked into the dressing room after the game everyone was devastated that we had only drawn a difficult away game.
“Stoke have a very good record at home and lots of teams have struggled to beat them at the Britannia Stadium but we are top of the league and we had hoped to go there and win.
“But we will remember this feeling and we will give everything for it not to happen again.”
Riera believes the old adage about there being no easy games is ringing truer than ever and points to a game in his native Spain as evidence.
“Last night I watched Barcelona, who are top of La Liga, play against Osasuna, who are bottom.
“Everyone expected Barcelona to win comfortably but with ten minutes remaining they were losing by two goals to one.
“They ended up scoring two goals in the last ten minutes to win the game but it was a much tougher match for them than expected.
“This is the way football is – you can never take victories for granted because every team can be a danger.
"You have to work for every point.
“But I can tell our fans that we will compete for every single point in every game that we play.”
Meanwhile, Xabi Alonso and Daniel Agger, who both missed the trip to the Britannia through injury, are hoping to be fit for the Merseyside derby at Anfield a week today.
Liverpool failed to break down a stubborn and resilient Stoke side for the second time in five months with Steven Gerrard coming closest to breaking the deadlock for the Reds when he hit the woodwork twice during the closing stages of the game.
Riera is in no doubt that the Reds have the character to respond to the setback in the right way and has vowed to remember the feeling of dejection he felt at the final whistle as a spur for the rest of the campaign.
“Saturday showed me the character of the team,” said the left winger.
“When I walked into the dressing room after the game everyone was devastated that we had only drawn a difficult away game.
“Stoke have a very good record at home and lots of teams have struggled to beat them at the Britannia Stadium but we are top of the league and we had hoped to go there and win.
“But we will remember this feeling and we will give everything for it not to happen again.”
Riera believes the old adage about there being no easy games is ringing truer than ever and points to a game in his native Spain as evidence.
“Last night I watched Barcelona, who are top of La Liga, play against Osasuna, who are bottom.
“Everyone expected Barcelona to win comfortably but with ten minutes remaining they were losing by two goals to one.
“They ended up scoring two goals in the last ten minutes to win the game but it was a much tougher match for them than expected.
“This is the way football is – you can never take victories for granted because every team can be a danger.
"You have to work for every point.
“But I can tell our fans that we will compete for every single point in every game that we play.”
Meanwhile, Xabi Alonso and Daniel Agger, who both missed the trip to the Britannia through injury, are hoping to be fit for the Merseyside derby at Anfield a week today.
No comments:
Post a Comment