Montoya says Barcelona mentally ‘screwed up’

• Posted on April 14, 2014April 14, 2014
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The 23-year-old has revealed the Blaugrana dressing room has been left broken by their two defeats in the last seven days

Barcelona defender Martin Montoya says the Spanish champions are “screwed up” mentally after losing 1-0 to Granada on Saturday.

The defeat at Estadio Nuevo Los Carmenes compounded a miserable week for Barca, who were knocked out of the Champions League at the quarter-final stage by Atletico Madrid in midweek.

Gerardo Martino’s side were missing several first team players, with Gerard Pique, Marc Bartra, Victor Valdes and Carles Puyol all out, while Dani Alves, Xavi, Alexis Sanchez and Jordi Alba were all left on the bench.

Yacine Brahimi’s 16th-minute strike was enough to earn Granada a huge boost to their survival chances, while providing a serious blow to Barca’s title hopes – and Montoya acknowledged that he and his team-mates were hurting.

“Mentally we’re pretty screwed up,” he told the club’s official website. “We could have won but we couldn’t capitalise on our chances. We gave it our all but in the end it wasn’t possible.

“We will fight for the league until the end, we still have games left and hopefully our rivals lose points.

“I ask the fans to support us on Wednesday (against Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey final. We want to dedicate a victory to them.”

Midfielder Andres Iniesta echoed Montoya’s disappointment and went on to suggest that they are currently taking backward steps.

“Sometimes it’s hard to find an explanation, we did everything we could to score,” he said.

“It’s a step backwards. We made a mistake in the play that led to their goal and that really hurt us.

“It hurts to take this backward step at this point in the league, when there’s so little left for the year to be over.”

Ryan Benson