Athletic Bilbao midfielder Oscar de Marcos claims he is ‘confident’ of a good result against Barcelona at the Camp Nou this weekend.
The Basques have started the new La Liga campaign indifferently with a 1-0 defeat at Malaga and a 3-0 home win over Levante, yet De Marcos insists the trip to face Luis Enrique’s men has not come too early in the season for Bilbao.
“We are confident of getting a result at such a difficult place as the Camp Nou and to win against a team of Barca’s standing would be even better,” he told a Press conference.
“I think we are increasingly confident in ourselves and we go into every match to win it, but we have taken points from some very important games and will try to do that there.
“Last year we had to go to the Santiago Bernabeu in the third fixture and you’ve got to play the best teams sooner or later. You never know when the best time is but what we do know is that this Saturday is the only thing we are focused on.”
De Marcos believes the Catalans have assembled a squad of good young players that will certainly put his team to the test.
“They’ve still not had a lot of matches but they are making changes. They have young players that are getting minutes and have a team to fight for everything, but we must think of ourselves.
“Barcelona demand a lot of you. If things go well it is because the team is playing well. If not we have to correct things for the next games, which are also important.”
The 25-year-old took stock of the physically demanding start Los Leones have had this term, one that gets even harder over the next three weeks.
“The truth is that we had our eyes on the qualifying round for the Champions League and had no rest. Then we had to focus on the Levante game and it was vital we got all three points.
“Now we have a series of very tough games, seven matches in 20 days, and we have to be ready,” he warned.
