Barcelona speak to the press before year end
The Barcelona coach Josep Guardiola has been very optimistic about his team’s form this season. The Spanish Champions have not drawn or lost a single game while being away from home during the Spanish La Liga. With a 10/10 away
record for the Blaugrana wearing side, Josep Guardiola has good reasons to be optimistic.
The Spanish Champions were involved in the last game of the year 2010, right before they left for the winter break. Barcelona were tied up with a mid table http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Athletic-Club-c38535 side and the game was supposed to be a cracker as Josep Guardiola
sent out a slightly different line up. Athletic Bilbao sent their best eleven with only their start striker http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Fernando-Llorente-c13671 missing the important Spanish Cup clash. However, Barcelona were playing on their home ground, the Nou Camp and the match looked to
be one sided.
Despite the fact that many of the fans thought that it was going to be a one sided game, Athletic Bilbao were able to block each and every attack that was being planted by the home team as the match ended in a goalless draw. After
the scoreless draw in the Nou Camp, Barcelona are going to rely on the second leg that is going to take place in San Mames, the home ground of Bilbao. Josep Guardiola stated that he is looking forward to the return leg as they can only move into the next round
in case they win the next game.
Now, Barcelona are going to be facing the mid-table team once again in two weeks time as they travel to San Mames for the second time this season. With the way the first tie ended, it is quite obvious that Barcelona are going to
find it hard to win the game with the Bilbao crowd being totally behind their team.
The Barcelona coach Josep Guardiola thinks that there are going to be many “thrills” as these two sides are going to face each other again. He said that he considers the second tie as a “new challenge” because Bilbao managed to
defend really well against the Barcelona front three. With Barcelona winning the Spanish Cup 25 times and Athletic Bilbao winning it 23 times, it means that the return leg is going to face a Cup match atmosphere.
Even though San Mames is a hard ground to play in, the Catalan coach is optimistic and thinks that his side are going to come out with a positive result. When the Spanish Champions travelled to Bilbao this season, they won the
game 1-3 while being away from home. However, the fans cannot forget that Barcelona did not perform at their best.
Josep Guardiola also summed up the year 2010. The Barcelona coach stated that he loved it all and liked the fact that they played some extraordinary football. He stated that despite the fact that the new season started off slow
because of fitness issues, he is still happy that the team has won incredible number of points and it is good that they are going to be heading into the year 2011 while topping the table.
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