First team

MACHÍN: 'WE FEEL PRIVILEDGED TO BE SO HIGH UP IN THE TABLE'

04/11/2018

The manager believes that his team had the best chances, but recognises that they were not 'enough to deserve the victory'

Pablo Machín was reflecting on the point as he spoke to the media after their draw at the Anoeta: 'I haven't had the time to let it sink in, but we always have to take out the positives. One of those is the clean sheet, something that we've been looking for for a long time despite consecutive wins. We were solid at the back and we have to remember the injuries that we are dealing with. Today without Mercado or Kjaer at the back, Amadou played well. Up front, we lost Ben Yedder at the last minute and we gave opportunities to Muriel and Promes. They still need to work on being more clinical, but we can't fault them for their attitude. The match was what it was and I think that we had the better chances, but we didn't have enough to deserve the win. The point was well-earnt.'

In terms of the La Liga table, he wanted to look at the good campaign so far from his players: 'At the end of the season, there'll definitely be two teams fighting for the league and another team close behind. There are a lot of teams fighting for fourth place and we can feel privileged to be so close to these places. The two big teams struggled a lot to win this week and we also had a tough match. Real Madrid showed their strength and we have been competing well. When you keep a clean sheet you're closer to winning and we could be more clinical, but the draw was the fairest result.'