FC Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard admitted that the tie against Liverpool was lost at Camp Nou but hailed the pride of his players on the pitch.


Here are some of his post match comments in the official press conference:

Liverpool played a great game. They were very well organised at the back and played very direct football to create danger. We played the ball around well to get into positions, but we needed other things to work. They started very strong, and were very decisive, very direct. I think it must have been a very attractive game for any neutral spectators.

From now on, if we play like that against anybody, with that pride we have shown as a team, then there is more of a chance that luck will be with you, if you don't do that, it is all so much harder. Tonight was a bad night, but we need to find our strength to recover and carry on. There is a lot to play for yet.

I can only say that I enjoyed the fight, the pride and the attitude the team showed out there. We accept our elimination, but there is no time in high level football, and we have to recover. I repeat that I just think that Barça have played with pride and we won at a difficult ground, perhaps we were a bit lucky, and I saw the way the fans reacted and applauded the players. They have knocked us out and now we have to recover as soon as possible.

I think I can summarise by saying it was a vibrant game, at the very highest level. They were more decisive than us in the final stages of the game and we could not narrow the gap with goals. One thing is evaluating the way we played, but you can't knock the players for their attitude. The result was fair. We were always going to be dragging the result from Barcelona with us. They had the mentality and the desire.