BARCELONA, 4 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The coach of Elche CF, Francisco, stated that this Sunday an FC Barcelona is visiting the Martínez Valero Stadium that reminds him of “a few years ago”, when the Blaugrana dominated, and therefore he expects a complicated duel against Xavi Hernández’s men, which he also sees at the best moment of the season.
“The intention is to play a good game, compete very well, against a rival that is remembering Barça from years ago and is going to submit us without the ball. When we have it, we will have to take advantage of the spaces to hurt them,” he assured at a press conference .
Francisco assured that they will try to take the game in their own style, where it may “interest” them. “In the end it is true that we are facing the best Barça of the season. Their players are at a good level, they have been scoring 4 goals for days and we will try to work as planned. It will not vary much from what we have been doing”, he commented.
“We are excited, we came from a strong stick last week in Valencia (3-0 defeat against Levante) but it has not influenced us at all, the opposite. We are realistic, humble when we win and when we don’t. And we face a rival It will be difficult,” he predicted.
In addition, they will be able to find themselves playing at home but with a lot of Blaugrana fans. “For us and for the club and the city it is a joy that there are 35,000 fans but many are going to be from Barça. We can ask our fans to be with us, hopefully we can celebrate something with them and give them enormous satisfaction,” he said. .
All this in a game with changes due to suspension (Gumbau) and several injuries. “We don’t want a revolution of eleven players either, but we do want to oxygenate the team a bit,” acknowledged the Elche coach.
“Against a rival like the one we’re up against, surely if we manage to score points in the end we’ll have to be satisfied, because I’m realistic. Then we’ll see how the game goes. At the Bernabéu, in the end, we were pissed off because we tied”, he commented on whether draw before starting.
This yes, foresees a party “totally different” to the one of the Camp Nou (3-2). “Barça right now is at a fantastic level in this sense, it comes from winning in Naples with a difference, like against Atlético, Valencia or Athletic. It will be different from the Camp Nou, where we had the opportunity (to win) and we were even better, in the second part,” he recalled.
“We are Elche and we are going to suffer, we cannot get out of the marked script. Being at 8 or 9 points, an error and losing a game can lead us astray. Those at the top are very good and it is difficult to score against them. We have to think about get the best out of each one to win. What is necessary is to score, not play well”, he commented on the objective until the end of the season, which is to achieve salvation.