Quique Sánchez Flores looked at the point earned against Bayer Leverkusen as positive. The ‘rojiblanco’ manager acknowledged that “we could have played differently in the first half, but we didn’t. In the second half, the team improved, there were more connections, combinations and penetrations. If we focus on the last 45 minutes, the point isn’t enough, but in the first half we were settling. In the end we earned one point and, the way the group is, the point tells me that we’re in the competition.”

The ‘rojiblanco’ head coach didn’t want to analyse the play of any of his players and limited himself to saying that “it was tough to get past the German side; in static, they placed themselves behind the ball and it’s very difficult to get past them if you don’t have an idea of how you want to play. In the second half, either because of the type of player or the idea, we created spaces, got down to the touchline, and enjoyed had very clear chances.”

After the penalty committed on Fran Mérida, Quique protested the play and asked for the second yellow card for Hyypia, which would have resulted in the sending off of the Finnish defender.  “We have to pay closer attention to these types of plays. I don’t understand why we were unable to ask for the second yellow card. If we want to be competitive we have to react against those plays,” he stressed.

With respect to the absence of Kun Agüero, Quique was clear and said that “we already made a mistake once and we weren’t going to do it again. If we were going to be taking the most minimum of risks, he wasn’t going to play. He’s been injured for three weeks and we don’t want to rush him. It’s true that he played some minutes against Real Zaragoza, but he felt differently then.”