Andres Iniesta claims that Athletico Madrid are one of the best teams in Europe
Barcelona’s prolific midfielder and World Cup winning hero Andres Iniesta strongly believes that Athletico Madrid are amongst the top, most dominant teams in Europe.
The player was reported to have made these claims prior to Barcelona and Athletico Madrid’s Spanish La Liga clash that is scheduled to take place this weekend. However the player suggests that his weekend opponents are one of the best teams in Europe and
Barcelona will be given a tough time in their upcoming match.
The Spanish international and playmaker was reported to have been talking to Marca, earlier in the week during a presentation regarding a new upcoming game ‘FIFA 11’ the player went on to assess the teams recent performances and was asked to reflect on his
teams upcoming match with Athletico.
Andres Iniesta was reported to have said: “The reality is that Atletico Madrid have won the UEFA Super Cup, won their first two league game, and have important players who are in good form. It will be difficult."
“Many of their players are internationals and today, they are one of the best teams in Europe.”
He also mentioned that Barcelona’s form is nowhere near, what it was last season. The team has already lost a game at home and he was also aware of the fact that the team lost two matches to Athletico last season. Their defeat to Athletico in last year’s
La Liga was the only time Barcelona tasted defeat last season in their domestic campaign.
The player then went on to add: “Yes, last year was the only match we lost. They are historically a rival that make us uncomfortable and we have to try and make things right and break that slump. We try to do business as usual because we cannot play any other
way.”
There could be two reasons for the player making these claims heading into the weekends match. The first reason being that Iniesta is participating in the age old, tactical mental warfare that Barcelona have become famous for over the past couple of months.
The team asks some of its player, Iniesta in this case to go public and make claims about the other team, they can be either positive or negative. However these comments tend to throw the opposition off guard and confuses them. Athletico could consider these
to be sarcasm on the players behalf and would hence go into the match, with anger clouding their actions and hence have their performance affected by it.
The second reason for these comments could be that Iniesta actually feels that Athletico are actually the real deal, the reason being, they were the only team to beat Barcelona in the domestic league last time around and have been really impressive so far
this season. Athletico won the Europa League in its inaugural season and the teams start striker Diego Forlan has been in phenomenal form since last season. He went on to score the winning goal in the Europa League final and even took home the Golden Ball
from the FIFA World Cup. None the less Barcelona will be hoping that their star studded squad can match Forlan on every move they make and go one step ahead if possible. Lionel Messi will be amongst the players who the team would turn to for inspiration this
weekend, the magical player hasn’t been at his best but if his mid week Champions League performances are anything to go by, then the player will be looking to go all out when he takes on Athletico this weekend.
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