Blanc: Barca are ‘the masters’

Paris Saint-Germain boss Laurent Blanc has labelled Barcelona the “masters of possession football”.

The pair clash in the group stages of the Champions League on Tuesday and Blanc, speaking at a Press conference ahead of the game, was invited to give his opinion on his former club

“I’ve always liked the Barcelona philosophy and it will be a pleasure to face them. However, we’ll need to focus our own minds exclusively on winning this match.

“It won’t be easy but we intend to stay true to our own style of play and attack them. I don’t want to see 11 men behind the ball and then be accused of not winning because we betrayed our own style.

“We are facing the masters of possession football so we’ll have to learn to play without the ball,” he admitted.

Blanc will have to contend with the loss of star man Zlatan Ibrahimovic from his line-up due to a heel problem.

“Ibra hasn’t trained for several days and I had no doubts about making the decision to leave him out.

“It would have been much easier with him in the team but we have other strikers who I’m sure will do a good job.

“We’ll have to see how he feels about his problems and if he’ll be available for upcoming games,” explained Blanc, who was asked about the ever-present threat of Lionel Messi.

“We know Leo very well as he is somebody who is capable of doing anything on a football pitch.

“When he runs at speed he is very dangerous and also brings his teammates into the game,” he added.

Tags Laurent Blanc Paris Saint-Germain
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