Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Rafa ready for new European assault


It's time to forget about the Champions League win last year and concentrate on this year's competition according to Rafa. Although he is confident that no one should be feared in the draw:

"We must not think about 'defending our trophy', we must only think about winning one game. The atmosphere in the stadium will be wonderful, but it will only be wonderful for Betis.
"Everybody in Seville has been very friendly, they always are, this is a lovely city. But I do not think the atmosphere will be friendly towards us when the match starts."
"It does not have any central defenders over six foot, they will find it difficult against Crouch."
"My only aim is to win here and not to concede a goal. We have worked on handling their free kicks and I do not want any silly mistakes.
"As for the rest of the group, yes we can also beat Chelsea. We beat them last season and we showed then that we can beat anyone in the tournament. But apart from the group games I do not intend thinking of anything else.
"I do not think about winning the trophy again, I cannot think about another final if we do not start right by winning here.
"We started last season by winning our opening match in the competition against Monaco, and I want another win here."

I must say that it's difficult not to think about the success last year. Our opponents will be using our tag, as the holders, to raise their game and we should be using the manner of our victory last season as inspiration in all situations.

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