Henry: "This team never surrenders"

Barcelona player Thierry Henry gave an interview to Catalan newspaper La Vanguardia.





The next league game against Atlético is a great opportunity to show that you didn't lose it.
It's never easy to play against them. Besides, Madrid plays first and if they win that will mean a little more pressure. Last year it was the other way around. We're still in a good position. You have to win the league game by game. It's a key game, but the next game will also be one.

Again playing a good game on Sunday would be the ideal answer, a psychological punch at Madrid?
If we win in the Calderón without playing well, I already sign for that. It's of course better to play well, because you enjoy more, but winning is the most important thing. If we win, I don't matter about how we did it.

The team is a victim of the great performances at the start, of always wanting to win in such a good and fast way?
We've always said that there was a lot of league left. Against Betis, we receive two goals because of a lack of attention, but in the second half we could have won. Later, against Espanyol... I don't like to talk about the referee but when I came home and saw that red card of Keita... You have to shut your mouth, the referee is the boss, but that changed the game a little. Not because you automatically lose when you play with ten men, I'm not looking for excuses, but it just changes the game. And the third one, a game in the Champions League is always difficult. We drew one all, that's not usual for Barça, but it's ok....

You joked that you only use your head to think, not to score...
That was before (laughter). We'll see if this goal will be important after the return game. If it really will be decisive. Sometimes things don't turn out well during a game, but you have to persist and persist.

Things weren't turning out very well for you in Lyon.
Not for me, but neither for almost every team-mate. Apart from the chance of Samu when he hit the post... There are games were everything works, and we've had a lot of games like that, but somethings they don't. The difference of this Barça is that it doesn't surrender when things are going well. We never surrender. You always have to leave the pitch with something.

You almost broke your neck when scoring against the French...
I avoided the post as good as I could. I thought I wouldn't manage. What I didn't know is that with that goal I surpassed Eusebio in the ranking of European goalscorers. It's true that in those times there were more goals scored but on the other hand they also played less games. If the goal is also important, that's the best thing.

People are saying that the team is getting more tired...
People said it, but it's not that. Sometimes, football is played with two teams. Lyon won seven league titles in a row. So be careful with them. I know that they don't have won a lot in Europe, but Makoun, Toulalan, Boumsong, Lloris, Mensah, Benzema... That's a team full of internationals. Madrid played there several times and they lost. Besides, they have Juninho. The game starts, first fault and goal. That helped them a lot at the start. I repeat that, when the game isn't going well, you have to do something. The difference with last year is in my opinion that we would have lost the games against Lyon, Betis, Racing, Osasuna. You can lose, but you can never give a game away, the opponent has to come and get it.

How is Guardiola when a game isn't going well. He's energetic?
He talks about returning to the start, the basics of the game, playing as a team. But he doesn't get angry just to get angry. It's a winner and he only thinks about the victory. I never had coaches who went mad. The coach gets angry but in a good way. He has a good reason for it, we listen to him and he talks very straight. His message gets through.

The defeat of Madrid in the Champions League can affect them?
I think these are different competitions. If you play against Liverpool, you have the feeling that nothing will happen... And then suddenly it's all over. They've won. I don't know if it's a team who makes the opponent weaker, but it sure is a cup team.


This was the first part of this interview. You will be able to read the second part here in the coming days with Henry talking -among other things- about the rest of his career and his tattoo.

Read more:
Henry becomes fifth European goalscorer
The man who changed Henry's luck
Henry will be put for sale in the summer