It’s Albert Riera: Celje celebrates historic win, Spanish expert unhappy with… goal received!
Photo: Urban Lesjak
The first home autumn match in Europe, more than 4100 people in the stands in an otherwise football-quite-sleepy town, and on the field – a five-goal blast! Everyone would be overflowing with pride, happiness, and satisfaction. But not everyone is Albert Riera. And Albert Riera is something special. We already know this well. But Albert Riera can still surprise. Just like he surprised after the 5:1 victory against a Turkish first league team. Although Celje completely crushed Istanbul Basaksehir, Albert Riera was… dissatisfied! The reason, believe it or not, was conceding a goal. Not the five scored. The one that Celje conceded…
“Good first half, bad second half… Situations differ from each other. The fact is this: we haven’t kept a clean sheet in a long time. I told the boys before the match: if we manage to do that this time, we will win. But they didn’t succeed. They still owe me a clean sheet! And that’s also the reason why I’m not satisfied,” Albert Riera said with surprising words after the match in the princely town.
The former coach of Olimpija and Bordeaux continued: “Of course, we didn’t expect to score five goals. That it would be a blast. The goal was still a clean sheet! That was also my first message to the boys. That we must not concede a goal. Well, if this team doesn’t concede many goals, it can achieve a lot. Now we are already thinking about Radomlje!”
It would still be utopian to expect Albert Riera to remain completely calm about his players’ achievement. “I’m not so proud of the result as I am of the aggression and toughness. We didn’t give the Turks much space. They had a few chances, but none clean. I’m satisfied with how the team defended. OK, it’s great if you’re good with the ball at your feet. But you also have to be good when you don’t have it. We are working a lot on that. More than usual. At this level, you can’t play well if you don’t defend well. Our defense was spot on this time with Armandas. He was exceptional,” Albert Riera added, who will visit his home country in the next round of the Conference League. The opponent? Betis from Seville. There, they will really need to defend well…
This text was automatically translated using AI.
Author: editorial Football Planet