Gilberto Press Conference
February 14, 2006
Gilberto says Arsenal have chance to win Champions League
Here is what Gilberto said in an official press conference yesterday evening:
“We can still make it a great season. People don’t talk too much about Arsenal and this is good because you can do your job in peace.
“On the pitch you can do your best and try to win the game. Anything can happen in football.
“Liverpool last year didn’t do very well in the championship but in Champions League they won. It’s a similar kind of situation.
“You can see all the time in football that if you are prepared you can do something special.
“Now it can change for us. We are fighting for a better position in the championship and we have another Champions League game in front of us and we can make everything different.
“We want to get something there but we will not be going for a draw. We will be playing to win the game. If it does not happen, then a point would be welcome for us.
“If we go to Madrid and stay in our own half for 90 minutes they will kill us.
“We need to be intelligent to play against them. If you go there desperate to play, in 10 minutes they kill you.
“In the last couple of games I’ve been watching to see how they play and in the last couple of weeks they’ve been struggling.
“We’ve got our confidence back, especially in the last week because we did very well against Birmingham and in the second half against Bolton.
“If we keep playing the same way we have a good chance to get a good result against Real Madrid.
“It’s been hard for us since Patrick’s departure but I think we’ve talked a little too much about that and lost a little bit of our focus.
“After that we had a lot of injuries and a lot of young players have come in but it’s just a transition – nothing more than that.
“The biggest problem has been in the injuries. This has made it very difficult for the manager because who is he going to play for the next game?
“In the last couple of games we’ve had no left-back, no right-back and it’s hard, but the players have done very well.
The Arsenal.com page about the conference