Gracia: "We continue to show good things, and have to keep improving and growing"

Valencia CF coach Javi Gracia was happy with his side's comeback against Deportivo Alavés, but disappointed with the goals conceded and with missing out on the three points. He spoke to the media in his post-match press conference.

Assessing the game

"It's a point. There are many ways of reading into that. At times we would look at the positive side, which is how we responded after the halftime scoreline. At the end of the game, we would look at the negative of us having had clear chances to win that we didn't finish. It's a dynamic to follow to keep picking up points, after our win the other day, and of course there are things to improve. We continue to show good things. There are the seeds there in the team, and that's something that we have to cultivate. We have to keep this improving and growing, making us more consistent all the time -and more reliable from start to finish."

Going behind early

"It is a situation that is happening quite regularly this season, and it's something we insist on trying to improve. We're finding it hard to have the same intensity at the start as when things are going against us. It's difficult to win games if we concede like today, when we went two goals down. The team have shown that they are capable, scored two goals and created opportunities to score more. We leave here with the feeling that we could have scored more goals after Manu Vallejo and Gameiro's chances, but we also know that we were losing 2-0 at halftime."

"We try to work on it and we talk about it before the games. It is not something that we don't realise. In today's game, after a victory against Real Madrid, after having players away on international duty, we made a great effort to try to focus everyone and make them aware that whilst the game against Real Madrid was very good, what mattered were today's three points. We made an effort to be more focused than ever and value the three points today, and we will continue to insist on this -as well as modify some things to achieve it."

Clear chances at the end

"I have spoken with the players and they know better than anyone what the situation is and the chances we had to win. They are angry for not having been able to score that goal that would have given us victory. More than just the last few chances, the situation in the first half makes me angrier, as we gave so many opportunities to the opposition to get that advantage on the scoreboard. We would have liked to win the game and we showed that commitment, that desire until the end. We have to strive to be a more solid team defensively. We can't be needing to score three goals in order to win games."

Gayà's possible injury

"Let's see what the tests tell us, it seems initially that he does have an injury, but over the next few days we will see the extent of it."