Barcelona Coach Tito Vilanova has denied his team will play defensively in the Super Cup second leg against Real Madrid tonight.
Barcelona go into the game with a 3-2 advantage after last Thursday's first leg, and a goalless draw would be enough to win them the tie and land Vilanova his first trophy as manager of the Catalan club.
But in his pre-match press conference, Vilanova insisted it was vital his team got on the score sheet.
“To win the Super Cup we have to score in Madrid, otherwise we’ll lose the title,” said the former assistant to Pep Guardiola. “If we are unable to maintain ball possession we’ll have a terrible time.”
Despite having a clear advantage over their rivals and being favourites to retain the trophy, Vilanova was under no illusion about the task awaiting his players.
"We know how hard it is to play at the Bernabéu, they’ll come out to score and push men forward from the first minute.
“The games we’ve played in the past against Madrid don’t really matter. There’s never a clear favourite and sometimes the team that is favoured loses."
The tactician added that captain Carles Puyol is unlikely to feature as he is still recovering from a fractured cheekbone.
“He trained this afternoon and tried to avoid any contact with his face.On Wednesday we’ll decide if he plays. He’ll be there if the doctors say he can play, but we won’t run any risks.”
Vilanova was ambiguous about whether Alex Song would make his debut in the clasico, saying the Cameroonian is not yet fully integrated into the Blaugrana's system.
"We’ll see if he gets some playing time, it all depends on how the game is going. The holding midfielder position is very important to us, it’s a well-defined role. Song still has to learn how to play that role within our system.”
The 42-year-old also revealed that he has told fringe players Ibrahim Afellay, Andreu Fontas and Jonathan dos Santos he is happy for them to remain at the club, but warned the trio that they would not get a lot of chances to play during the season.
