RIOJA: "IT'S VERY IMPORTANT TO GO INTO THE INTERNATIONAL BREAK WITH THE 3 POINTS" 

Luis Rioja chatted with VCF Media after helping Valencia CF to a win over Getafe CF.

AN IMPORTANT WIN

“It's very important to go into the international break with the three points. I think the team gave their all, were the better side throughout the match, and converted that into the result. Thanks to the unity we have with the fans, everything seems to be going much more smoothly here and it's much easier for us.”

WORKING FOR THE VICTORY

“To beat Getafe, we had to work hard. We'd already seen that in their first two matches this season. We knew it was going to be a very difficult match, a game with little space, a game in which there was practically no room between the lines. I think set pieces always play a big role in every game, and even more so for us today. We scored the first goal, and that allowed us to open up the opposition more, forcing them to press a little more. It allowed us to find those spaces that would have been much harder to find if the score had remained 0-0. Thanks to the goal to make it 1-0, we adapted our game, and that's what we wanted to do in the match. From now on, we have to understand that set pieces are very important and have a big impact on games.”

A BOOST IN CONFIDENCE

“We know it's very important to start getting wins. We know how important this stadium is for us, for the players, and for all the fans who have been spurring us on from the first minute. We're going into the international break with a win and a draw at home, and a loss away. It was important to win so that this new project, this continuation of last year's project, continues to gain momentum and be better adapted to the players. Now, we'll have two weeks to continue working. New teammates have arrived who have been here a little while, and we're going to try to get them adapted to us, to what the coach wants, as quickly as possible.”

THE OVATION FOR HIM

“It’s a joy. Beyond what you'll take from it as a player, it's also a big thing as a person. I'll always take that with me. At a stadium like Mestalla, a champion stadium, with the grandeur that this club has, in the end, it's something very important for any player, and even more so for me.”