Belief
“We’ve had a good week of preparations for this match, with the aim of confronting the challenge that is Barcelona. We’ve done the right things, so let’s see if we’re capable of developing what we’ve achieved. We’re animated, confident and assessing our possibilities of securing a good result.”
A challenge
“Coming up against the best teams is a challenge, which provides an incentive, so we’re focused on what we need to do in order to perform well. We are under no illusions that the match is going to be easy, just because we’ve done it before.”
Results factor
“We’ve played good matches against this team in the past and we would like to keep doing so, knowing that every game is different. Out of 19 LaLiga games I think they’ve only lost two, which says a great deal about the difficulties surrounding this rival.”
The fans are key
“With regards to the fans, for me the line-up starts with the fans plus another 11. They’re not the 12th player, they are the fans plus an additional 11 when it comes to this type of match. The atmosphere generated from their incredible support makes the players give the best of themselves.”
Respect
“I don’t know of any team that doesn’t respect another, before, during and after a match. But we have our pride, and will be competing as well as we can in order to try and achieve a good result.”
Optimism
“It’s a good sign that shows confidence, enthusiasm and the fact that the fans believe we can secure a positive result. We’ve played great games against this team before, and competed well. As we are aware, it cost us a great deal of strength, hard work and luck at times, so we must continue along the same lines and give our all in order to have options.”
Surprise Barcelona
“They are a team who we know clearly what and how they play, but the difficulty isn’t knowing how they play, but knowing how to surprise them. We’ve always played similar matches against them previously, and our job as the coaching team is to find those nuances that make the game different, and this difference will surprise them, which is what we’re working on.”
