Barcelona manager Xavi Hernandez attended to the media’s questions on Saturday afternoon ahead of their trip to Madrid on Sunday.
Traditionally, the Barcelona style of of play is the most common to come up in pre-match press conferences, but in this instance Xavi was asked about that of his opponents too. He had a good response, which was reported by Mundo Deportivo.
“Madrid are chameleon-like, you never know if they’re going to wait for you or pressure. Against PSG they played a brutal last half hour with pressure. I am visualising a match which is much more similar to that of the Supercup, with Madrid waiting for the counter. But they can also press high. We’ll see.”
With their rivals Real Madrid missing their key forward Karim Benzema, Xavi was also asked if this would affect how he set his own side up.
“Benzema is one of the best nines in the world, it’s an important loss, but it doesn’t change anything in our strategy. I suppose it might change something for them.”
Undoubtedly the main attacking threat for Los Blancos becomes Vinicius Junior, who is second behind Benzema in terms of goals this season for Real Madrid. Barcelona will be without Sergino Dest for the match though, which could cause issues if veteran Dani Alves has to deal with his compatriot’s pace.
“[Ronald] Araujo with Vinicius? There are a lot of possibilities, I’m unfair to a lot of players, many of them could come in but everyone must be prepared because playing the last half an hour could make the difference.”
Real Madrid will also be without Ferland Mendy, while Barcelona are without Sergi Roberto, Ansu Fati and Samuel Umtiti.
