Gayà: "We supported Diakhaby at all times, and did what he told us"

Valencia CF captain José Luis Gayà spoke to VCF Media following the final whistle on Matchday 29, expressing his thoughts on the controversial game against Cadiz CF and strongly condemning racism.

"I was far away from the incident. Diakhaby looked very angry and animated, and he told us that he had received a racist insult. That's why we headed off the pitch. It's lamentable that this kind of thing is still happening in football, and a solution has to be put in place," said Gayà.

"We supported him at all times. We did what he told us; he wanted us to go back out. We went back out because he told us, and also because if we didn't we would have been deducted points. That is what we were told when inside the dressing room, and we had no other option than to come back out."

"It was a very strange game, but I think that we took the initiative at all times. We lacked a little clarity up top, but I don't think that we deserved to lose.
We are professionals. We went back out and tried to do the best that we could. It was a very atypical game, with a lot of breaks in play and a lot of things happening. We shouldn't make excuses and we have to focus on the next game," said the club captain, before looking ahead to next weekend's match against Real Sociedad.

"We are strong at home and we will be up against a side who have their morale at a high next time. We have to play our own game and go out there to win -like we always do at home. It was a shame today, because we had a very good opportunity to latch onto the teams higher up, and we didn't do that."