Interview: Jonas Gonçalves

SuperDeporte conducted an interview with the Brazilian forward.

Is it hard to face an entity like Chelsea, with a brutal difference in budget?

I don’t think the difficulty is measured in terms of the economic situation but rather on the playing field. There is a need to see things clearly, for example we had a lot of ball possession but we didn’t create any clear opportunities for goal. We should keep going forward and think about the Europa League, a tournament which is very important to us, and to give thanks to our supporters.

Was the first goal that they scored key?

No, I think the second goal was the determining one because it is hard to score twice at Stamford Bridge. We decided to keep fighting to the end of the game but there was nothing else we could do in the Champions League and now we have to look at La Liga because Saturday we have another game to play to stay ahead in the table.

You have to fight as well in the Europa League.

It’s important, to me the competition is important. To play in the Champions League is a very big thing for the professional career of a player, but the same goes for the Europa League.

How was the locker room?

It was affected, because we left a competition in which we had an objective to pass through to the round of sixteen but now we have to unite our power to go on stronger. We need to think in fighting in La Liga so it can allow us to go back to the Champions League the next year.

Now you are going to face Betis, a team that has only earned a total of one point out of a possible thirty, but in the league they have demonstrated a great level of playing.

We have a lot of quality, we are going to fight to the end to achieve our club’s objective. Now we play Betis, a team that started the league well but now has not been how they were, and who want to overcome because they are home but we also want to win. It will be a hard game, but we will go with the mentality of doing things right to get the three points because it is in our interest. It is important.

Pepe Mel, after losing his last game against Osasuna, assured that he does not know what to do. He insists that they play very well but that they can’t get the result, is this a motive you cannot trust?

That is normal in football, playing well but the result does not correspond to the game. Betis is a team in need of points and it will be difficult. It is a complicated game, without a doubt. It will not be easy to beat them in their house.

Have you ever seen such a massive displacement of people, like there was in London?

No, never. It impressed me to see so many of our supporters in the stands, it made me happy that there were so many people in London because that shows that they believe in us and we should keep making them happy because they deserve it. There was close to 2,000 people, it’s very nice to see.

Do they deserve one?

Yes, of course. We should always play for them because they always push and help us. The supporters are the most important thing for a team.

Going in to analyzing tactics,  an alternative Unai Emery realized was to place you a few meters behind Soldado and Aduriz.

It is another possibility to play with two strikers and me a few meters back to give them assistances but we practically did not create occasions in the game. At the end of the game, with a shot from the head of Aduriz, to the same margin of the two initial plays which lacked luck with the shot to the post of Jordi Alba and David Albelda’s shot. It was not easy because they had quality and the two lines of four that they had next to the box were very close together. They closed up very well. We passed the ball around, but not near their area.