Vilanova: Barca won’t give up

Tito Vilanova has conceded the difficulty of the task facing Barcelona against Bayern Munich, but says that the team will give it their all.

La Blaugrana welcome Bayern to the Camp Nou on Wednesday evening for the second leg of their Champions League semi-final looking to turn around a 4-0 defeat from last week’s first leg at the Allianz Arena.

“I expect that we will be ourselves. That we will try to be better than Bayern,” commented Vilanova in his pre-match Press conference today.

“We know we have to score, I know we can do that. We should be ourselves, that is the important thing. Scoring goals but also playing good football.

“It is very obvious we cannot concede, it will make it that much harder. But we have to get goals as well.

“The players are aware of the difficulty of the match. We are FC Barcelona and we cannot take this tie for being lost already.

“If we do not make it, we have to hold our heads high, fight until the end, and have our fans feel proud about us.

“We know we need the fans. It is not the same to have a quiet stadium compared to a stadium full of people cheering.

“Bayern had everyone cheering for them and that helped them without a doubt. But we cannot always ask the fans for help, we also have to give them something back in return.”

Lionel Messi struggled to get into the first leg in Germany last week.

“We know how important [Lionel] Messi is in our team especially when it comes to scoring goals. The better he plays, the better for the team.

“But we cannot put all the pressure on his shoulders, the rest of the team also has to help him. Obviously Messi will have a lot to say in tomorrow's match.”

Vilanova turned his attention to team news, confirming that Javier Mascherano won’t play and that Sergio Busquets remains a doubt for a minor groin injury.

“Javier Mascherano will not be able to play tomorrow. He needs six weeks to recover and only four have gone by, so he will not be in the team.

“Sergio Busquets and some others are still suffering from minor injuries. We will see after the training session if Busquets is fit to play.

“When I said that without [Gerard] Pique we would not be the same team, I mean it. His season has been excellent.

“The fact that we have conceded goals has to do with the fact some players have been injured.”

Tags Bayern Bayern Munich Vilanova
La Liga - Club News