Gracia: "We showed our will, but it didn’t happen for us"

Speaking in his post-match press conference following the 2-1 defeat to Granada CF, Valencia CF coach Javi Gracia expressed his frustration that a good performance went unrewarded.

Keeping working

We have to prepare for our next game. There's no other way. We have to continue to be optimistic and continue believing that all of the circumstances that are being adverse for us right now, at some time will work in our favour. Obviously we have to look for that with our hard work and dedicate as much time as possible to getting better all the time -and get that little bit of luck that is needed, and that we aren't having at the moment.

The dressing room

The dressing room is hurt, because after that start to the game -our dominance, our chances on goal, going ahead and having been able to score more- the way that the game finished was really frustrating. Over the course of the game we showed our will, even during the most difficult moments, but it didn’t happen for us.

Refereeing decisions

What I told the official was that I was feeling prejudicated over the course of the game by several decisions that he had taken. In the final goal, I think that there was a clear foul on Koba, when he tried to play the ball. He was brought down in a move that ended in a goal. Then there was the foul that led to Granada’s first goal, for which I have my doubts as to whether it was really a foul by Mangala on Soldado. I don’t want to give my analysis on the red cards, because I don’t know what was said to the referee. The second yellow card for Jason was preceded by a push that sent him to ground first of all. There are a series of situations in which I could feel prejudicated, and that’s all that I told the official.

Sendings off of Jason and Guedes

The two sendings off will have to be looked at, to see exactly what happened. Playing with fewer players on the pitch, especially in such even, important games, makes it tough for you to take a good result. It’s something to improve on and try to correct for the coming games. We were struggling as it was to win with 11 players, in such an even game, which we could have killed off in the first half. In the second half we gave them chances because of having fewer players, and it was very difficult -despite the team showing their well right to the end.