Zubizarreta: “Whenever there’s an injury like Villa’s, the rest is secondary”

Despite qualification for the Club World Cup Final, the Director of the Sports Area for Football was dismayed about the injury to the Asturian forward.

After the game with Al-Sadd, Andoni Zubizarreta spoke to the media, and particularly about the injury suffered by David Villa. He was clearly upset by the news that his star striker has fractured his left tibia. "Whenever there's an injury like Villa's, the rest is secondary," he said. Indeed, despite qualifying for the world final on Sunday against Santos, for the moment, it is as if nothing else matters. Zubizarreta didn't want to go into details about the incident that led to the injury, merely saying that "in football there is always going be that kind of risk," and neither did he want to discuss the idea of using the winter transfer window to bring in somebody to take Villa's place.

Turning to the game with Al-Sadd, Zubizarreta confessed that the Qatari outfit "showed us a lot of respect right from the start, and camped ten players in their penalty area. They defended tightly and committed fouls if need be." He also observed that although the stadium was packed to the rafters "there wasn't much of an atmosphere." Given all that, he commented that "it is difficult to play games like these and I think we dealt with it all very professionally."

As for the final against Santos, Zubizarreta said that what he admires most about the Brazilians is that they "combine skill with tactics, and individual talent ... We'll compete by doing what we know how to do, keep hold of the ball." (via FCBarcelona.cat)