Claudio Úbeda: from fury over defeat in Ecuador to hope at La Bombonera | OneFootball

Claudio Úbeda spoke after the tough setback Boca suffered in Guayaquil. After the 1-0 loss to Barcelona SC on matchday four of the Copa Libertadores group stage, the coach did not hide his frustration in the press conference over the missed chances, although he quickly shifted gears and showed confidence ahead of the two "finals" coming up at home.

The way the match unfolded in Ecuador left a bitter taste for the coaching staff, mainly because of the chances the team failed to capitalize on while the game was still level. “When we create chances and can’t score, it frustrates us. We had chances and couldn’t finish them, beyond the difficulty of the pitch, the red cards and everything else, we had the first opportunities to score and unfortunately it didn’t happen, that’s what gives me the most anguish,” Úbeda said.

Along the same lines, he stressed that finishing was the real turning point of the night in the Libertadores: “We had the first chances and that would have changed the game.” The Ecuadorian side’s only goal came after a quick move that caught the team off guard, something Úbeda described as avoidable.

Claudio Úbeda spoke after the defeat in Ecuador.

“I don’t know if the goal was an unforced error, a poor clearance in the attacking area that caught us out of position led to that goal. In these matches, small details determine the course and result of the game,” he analyzed. He then went deeper into that specific mistake: “An unforced error allowed the opponent a quick transition and it ended in a goal. It’s not that we were out of position, but rather that we lost the ball without much pressure from the opponent.”

Claudio Úbeda expanded on his analysis

When speaking about the context, the pitch was a factor that clearly made the match harder to play, something the squad, according to him, had already expected upon arriving at the stadium. “We already knew beforehand that the field conditions were not going to be good. There was a lot of water and it wasn’t possible to play well on the ground. We already knew that in advance because we couldn’t warm up on the pitch,” he explained.

Another key factor that altered the plans was the red card shown to Santiago Ascacibar. On that situation, Úbeda was blunt, did not look for excuses in the refereeing, and left a message for the future: “From what you can see, the sending-off was correct. I have no complaints, just like with their player’s red card. It affected us a bit, even if only for a while, to play with one less player, and it’s something we have to try to avoid. We believe that if we had kept all 11 players on the field, the result surely would have been different.”

Despite the understandable frustration of returning empty-handed from Ecuador, Boca’s fate in the group stage will now be decided in front of its own fans. With that in mind, he ended his remarks with confidence in the squad: “We fully trust how we play at our stadium, we know what it means to play those two matches at La Bombonera, and we are fully confident that we’re going to do well.”

Keep reading:

Boca lost in Ecuador: how the Group D standings in the Libertadores look

They didn’t deliver: Boca fell to Barcelona in Ecuador

Santiago Ascacibar sent off in Ecuador: which matches he will miss

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.