Ronaldinho explains that his substitution was for the good of both him and the entire team.


Ronaldinho has moved in quickly to calm the media dust being raised over the Brazilian dynamo's substitution in the La Liga weekend game against Osasuna, after Coach Frank Rijkaard pulled out the Brazilian for Spanish star Xavi Hernandez in the 66th minute. Ronnie was not displeased with the change as the media had suggested, but was rather pleased that Rijkaard was looking ahead to other games and making attempts to preserve him for greater battles ahead:

We need to think about the next match. I was not surprised because there is another game in the middle of the week. We must always look to improve, even when we win. In the Osasuna match, we suffered the effect of having so many of our players out for international matches in their respective countries. This had its effect as many of us came back tired and then headed straight of Pamplona.

Ronaldinho supports Barca teammate Deco Anderson's philospophy that many more matches lie ahead, and that Barca should focus neither on the past nor on any team ahead of them, but rather on winning the trophies ahead of them:

Our focus on winning is what is most important to us. What matters is that we improve ourselves and we to not have to think about Madrid or our opponents, wether they are haead of us or behind us. It's still a long season there are still many more matches left.

FC Barcelona will play Olympique Lyon, Sevilla and Real Zaragoza all within a very short space of time in the next days.