‘You notice when Camp Nou’s half full’

Pedro has conceded that he ‘really notices’ when the Camp Nou is half full, after Barcelona came in for criticism for their poor attendance.

Only 60,000 turned up for last weekend’s loss to Valencia, whilst Copa del Rey matches have been poorly attended in recent weeks.

And the forward has admitted that it is obvious when the ground is not packed to the rafters.

You really notice when the stands are half empty – you can’t fail to notice it,” he told a Press conference.

“And playing in front of 90,000 fans isn’t the same as playing in front of 38,000. For us it is tiring to kick off matches at 10 o’clock at night.

“We would prefer matches to kick off at 8 o’clock but we have to accept the timetable we are given. Late kick-off times, the cold weather and other factors all have an effect but our fans always support us and that’s why we are obliged to put in a good season.

“I don’t know if the public is fed up with us or not, we always try to entertain them although we had just suffered a league defeat. Better games will come and we will try to give our best as we always do.”

The Spain international then commented on this weekend’s match with Sevilla and the possibility of entering a ‘downward spiral’.

“It’ll be a tough match – they gave us a hard time when we met at Camp Nou. But it will be my 250th game with Barcelona.

“They will start the match as they usually do – intensely so we will need to be careful. The margin for error is nil.

“We never fall into the trap of succumbing to negative thoughts. We’re going into Sunday’s match on the back of a defeat, but any team can have an off day.

“I’m sure that we’re going to grow stronger – we’re in a great moment and we want to continue our philosophy as best as we can.

“We have a lot of good moments to look back on this season and we’re satisfied with what we are doing.”

Tags Pedro
La Liga - Club News