Post-match comments

Juande Ramos admitted the team seems to find it hard to score a second goal in its matches, but he was happy with the victory. Higuain and Pepe shared their thoughts about the match with Racing when it was over.

JUANDE RAMOS:

Tonight’s game was similar to our previous clashes. We earned a new victory that will do the team a lot of good, but we find it hard to score a second goal. I think we had enough chances to net another strike. It would’ve allowed us to relax and play better. Not scoring again makes the team nervous because of the uncertainty winning by just one goal implies. The good thing is we took another three points and we didn’t concede any strikes.

Faubert had a weak debut, but the team was weaker when he came on anyway. I hope he can help us much as he gains more confidence. He’s played too little to make a strong judgment of his performance.

Fatigue brings about a risk of injury and we can’t afford that. I took Robben off against his wishes because we dominated and had already scored our strike.

HIGUAÍN:

There’s nothing greater than scoring a goal and it is even better to do so at your home stadium before your own crowd. The team played well and our defence did a good job. I am very happy, but what’s important is that we are winning our games.

I’ve worked very hard today. There are times when I have to help my team-mates out. I am proud of all of us who played tonight. We will achieve our goals through hard work. I scored a good strike that gave us three points.

We have to continue playing this well. It isn’t easy to win seven consecutive games. We have to defeat Gijon and then win against Betis at the Bernabeu. The match with Liverpool is very important for us and I think we will be very confident if we win the two matches that precede it. We now have to rest and think about our following game. You can achieve everything through hard work, humility and constancy.

Many things have hapened in recent weeks, but we didn’t concede any goals tonight. I don’t think we bore the crowd. The important thing is we won again and took three more points.

PEPE:

It was hard to mark Zigic; it was a collective effort. The three points are all that matter and we have to wait and see if Barcelona lose tomorrow to cut distances shorter.

I feel great; I even dared to attack at one point tonight. Cannavaro and I are having a great moment. We want the crowd to enjoy itself.

We all work in defence because we know the team will always have a chance to score a goal.