Valverde: Just 10 bad minutes can knock you out of the Champions League
The Barcelona coach is not getting carried away with Barça's 4-1 lead
Ernesto Valverde is not taking Barcelona's 4-1 lead against Roma for granted and that "10 bad minutes" could see the La Liga leaders knocked out of the Champions League on Tuesday.
"It's is a difficult game and we don't know what's going to happen," Valverde said in a press conference on Monday at the Stadio Olimpico. "If [you have] 10 bad minutes, you're out of competition. Small details can change everything and you have to avoid bad moments to stay in the competition.
"We can't think we've already won. Nothing has been decided yet. It's true we have a good avdantage, but we can't take that for granted. We have to play as if it is 0-0 because anything can happen. Something could go against us, a red card. We need to go out to play well and try and win the game -- no thoughts about anything else."
Asked if he really thought Roma could mount an improbable comeback, Valverde had no doubts.
"Of course it's possible," the Barça coach added. "I have been in football a long time and I know extraordinary things happen in games (... ) what we hope is that nothing crazy happens.
"Looking at our season, we know that it's tough to score against us and we have a lot going forward, we can score goals. But we can't go into game thinking they're out of it. They will go for it. We saw in first leg that they have good players, one mistake could cost you and we're playing to reach the semifinals."
