Mata Blog: Morale High

Each week, Juan Mata keeps Manchester United fans around the world up to date with his own personal blog. Here's an extract from this week's piece...

As you can imagine, today I’m very pleased about the two games we have played this week… We won both and that is really important; a boost of morale ahead of the next games!

This is football and, whether you like it or not, you don’t get much time to enjoy the victories or mourn the defeats, so I think it is vital to remain mentally strong and focused on our goals. That is how we are going to approach to the last stage of the Premier League. As if every game was a final.

In my previous post I appealed to the winning spirit that has, historically, made United a big club, and I experienced that on Wednesday against Olympiacos. It was a thrilling game, with the fans chanting and the team scoring goals to produce a great comeback and get into the quarter-finals. And I realised that a Champions League night at Old Trafford is different, as I'd been told.

We have been drawn against Bayern Munich, which brings great memories here of the Champions League won in Barcelona in 1999. We will have to ask Ryan Giggs about that game and what we can do to beat them! It’s going to be very tough: they are having an amazing streak in the Bundesliga and play very good football. They are a fantastic team and the favourites to win the trophy, but we will try to beat them and reach the semi-finals.

The week ended the same way after winning at West Ham, a game to be remembered for Rooney's stunning goal from the halfway line. I was asking him for the ball, but I think he chose the right option… Spectacular Wayne!

The team has got confidence and now there is an exciting challenge ahead: our derby against City on Tuesday. It will be the first one for me and I’m looking forward to it. You can already feel in the streets that special atmosphere.