In the last 16 round of the UEFA Europa League, Barcelona will host Galatasaray at 23:00 on Thursday, March 10, coach Xavi made a statement before the match.
The young coach talked about his friendship with Torrent. Xavi also used words of praise about Galatasaray star Kerem Aktürkoğlu.
Here are Xavi’s highlights:
“We are very excited. The team is in good shape, we will play in front of the fans, the mood is very good at the moment and we have worked hard to get to this point. We have to try to play like the last games and get a good result because the match in Turkey will be difficult.
Domenec Torrent is my close friend. He came to Qatar 5 months ago and we met there. Al Sadd watched his training. He is a very experienced, great coach who uses the same football model as me.
The Turkish League is a different and different experience for him. It will be very successful in Turkey. Dome has this quality, talent. Galatasaray’s place in the league is not equal to its quality. Galatasaray will rise well above its league ranking in a short time and will get rid of this situation.
We do not consider ourselves to be one of the favorites of the UEFA Europa League. We have no experience in this tournament. Sevilla is the more favourite, in my opinion. We are just one of the candidates, but we have to show it on the field.
I will rotate in the Galatasaray match. Because I have tired players. They played a lot and they are not in good shape. We will use different players in midfield and attack. The more vigorous players performed better in practice.
“I HAVE A STAFF THAT SURPRISES ME, LIKE KEREM AKTÜRKOĞLU”
They have players with talents that surprise me individually, like Kerem Aktürkoğlu… Galatasaray has the quality to cause us problems. That’s why we have to make them suffer when we have the ball.
Inaki Pena made a very bold decision. Here he was in competition with Ter Stegen and Neto. He went to Galatasaray, but we watch him every match. I think he did a very good job at Galatasaray. “Our thinking about Pena is that he will return to Barcelona very well and continue with him.”