Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman said he does not see the league classic against Real Madrid on Sunday as “an exam”, but admitted that a victory would serve “to show that we are on the right track.”
“It’s an important game, a classic that we want to win, but I don’t feel like it’s an exam,” Koeman said at the pre-match press conference.
“The result is not decisive, it only indicates the moment of the two teams”, considered the Barça coach, recalling that “there is a long season after the game.”
“Yes it is true that we can show that we are on the right track, we have to play without fear, show that we can win,” he said.
After an uneven start to the season, this week Barça had two consecutive official victories and a third against the meringues would be “important, especially for ourselves, it would give us some confidence in ourselves that we can win a classic”.
Koeman, who believes that “in a classic there is no clear favorite”, admits, however, that “I can’t have more pressure, I know that the Barça coach has to take this, no problem. I know the importance of a classic.
The Barça coach, for whom both teams have little margin of surprise, affirms that Real Madrid is a team “more experienced in some positions, but we also have that experience in several players, so I think we are more or less the same” .
«They have great individuals who know how to read a game, we have, above all, possession of the ball. We have to have a good defensive organization when we have the ball and lose it. We have to play with personality and control his counterattack, “he said.
Koeman also tried to take pressure off Ansu Fati, on whom many expectations are placed: “You have to leave Ansu alone, that he can recover well from his injury and have minutes and the physique that each player needs. Do not think that it is Ansu alone. It is part of the team, the team is the important thing. (AFP)