José Gayà: "The fans have encouraged us in every second and our staying up is, in part thanks to them"

The Valencia CF captain spoke to VCF Media following the game vs. Real Betis at Benito Villamarín (1-1)

Believing until the end
Of course, we suffered. We found it hard in the first half. We didn't have the balance to be able to hurt them. The game played on the wings and we insisted on playing inside. In the end, the team were able to turn it around. I'll take away the work we've done to get out of this situation, because everything had gotten very ugly. We believed thanks to the passion of the fans and hopefully it will help us to learn for the coming years.

A lot of work
We did our own thing. We depended on ourselves. We knew that by scoring points we would stay up, and that's how it went. It was not necessary to look at other grounds. We have achieved it with a lot of work.

Learning from the experience
It's liberating to be safe. We were very close to going down, but thanks to our drive, to the work that we have done at the end of the season after a very bad run since the World Cup, we were able to turn the situation around and hopefully it will really help us to not to play with fire, because the fans do not deserve to see their team where we have been this year. We have to apologise.

Thanking the fans
At times, we weren't able to respond to the fans' support away from home with victories. I remember going to Almería, Cádiz, Mallorca… Away from home we have been very bad all season. In the end, in Vigo we were able to win and that match was key for us, with the boost that we got from the fans. I thank them for all that effort. They have encouraged us in every second and our staying up is, in part thanks to them.