Mata's Blog: The Ball Just Wouldn't Go In

Hi everyone. Believe me, it’s not easy for me to write here today, right after this Sunday’s defeat, but I want to remain loyal to this weekly meeting with you. A defeat is part of football and it’s very important that you take it, understand it and use it to improve.

To be honest, I don’t think we deserved to lose against Southampton. It was not the best game to watch. They were well positioned and defended very well, so creating chances was difficult. And yet we were in control of the game. The first half was not very good; the game was quite slow, too tactical. But we kept the ball most of the time, trying to find spaces towards the goal.

They scored after the break in one of the few chances they had, after a ball that rebounded on the post, and then we tried everything to tie the game. I think we deserved that goal.

In the last 20 minutes we had chances. I had three myself, but yesterday it seemed the ball just didn’t want to go in. It would’ve been very important to make some of them because I believe we could have even won. I tried every possible way until the end, but we just couldn’t make it. Next time it will be a different story, I’m sure.

Anyway, what matters now is to win our next game, regardless of who scores. We visit QPR and it’s going to be a tough one. They are in need of points and we know we must go back to a good streak of wins.

Once again, thank you for your support. Today we are disappointed because of the defeat, but you can rest assured that the team will keep fighting in every game until the end to achieve our goals.

Hugs,

Juan

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