“The key will be to understand the level of arbitration permissiveness as soon as possible”

The Barcelona coach Jesús Velasco has valued the Elite Round of the Champions League next week

“You have to understand when we all have to be at our best and this is one of them,” he stressed.

Despite the fact that they will still have to receive Jaén Paraíso Interior on Saturday in a key duel to maintain the league lead, Barça is already thinking about the Elite round of the Champions League that will take place next week in Croatia against the host Pula, the Romanian United Galati and the most difficult rival in theory, the Belgian Sporting Anderlecht (club that absorbed Halle-Gooik last summer).

This Thursday the traditional Media Day took place at the Palau prior to the big events in which the players spoke with the media and the coach Jesús Velasco analyzed this last step before the long-awaited Final Four and explained that Dídac “did a goal training on Wednesday isolated from the rest of his teammates. Now the medical staff will tell me if they can start doing something with the group now to see how they have responded and based on that we will see how we are getting into it. He is one step away from entering”. If he does not arrive on time, Miquel Feixas is scratching at a high level and would be in charge of defending the goal.

“First we have to think about Jaén, because it is an important game to continue fighting for first place and both I and the rest of the coaching staff have to convey it to the players. As of Saturday, we have to analyze our rivals well and understand where we are, unify the objectives and that we all know why we are going to Croatia. We are the favorite team to go through, but they command the track and we have to play”, commented the Toledo native.

In this sense, he also referred to the defeat on Tuesday in Palma and the one suffered earlier in Murcia. “The final sensations have always been good, but in Murcia and Palma we let ourselves be dominated in the early stages and in the second we took a step forward. You have to understand that we are not unbeatable and that we can lose against anyone if we don’t play at our level. If we don’t go all the way, we are already giving our rival advantages,” he reflected.

“We talk about all this every week, we talk about it in every game, but we are human and you can’t always be 100 percent nor do you have the same motivation no matter how much you want to have it. The key? Enter concentrated to know what we are playing and thus not have that hesitant start. You have to read that, you have to give your all. Afterwards you can lose, but being faithful to our game and trying to do what we train on the track”, added Velasco.

“If the team had played a very good first half and in the second half they had fallen, yes I would say it could be physical fatigue, but it was the other way around because in the second half we were ahead of the rival and in Murcia something similar happened. Physical fatigue is not It can be mental and there are more factors. Since the last week of September we have not done a normal week of training between selection calls and games during the week and we are in the middle of November. We have to adapt to this competition train, because it is a beating enormous. You also have to understand what are the moments in which we all have to be at our best and this is one of them.”he stressed in reference to the appointment of Croatia.

Already in a European key, Velasco insisted that they are going to meet “champion teams. The Romanians come from being first in their group, they were champions in their league and they have eliminated three other teams. On paper, Anderlecht have a squad with which they could play in our league, but there is also their competitive rhythm and how they are physically. The advantage is that the first game we played against the Romanians and we can see the performance of the other two teams. And the last game will be against the Croatians, who are the hosts and there we will see how much we need points.”

The former Inter coach referred to what awaits them on the shores of the Adriatic in this town famous for its good wines. “In principle, unless they change, because in the Elite there can be surprises, it is a good pavilion with parquet. The ball is a Select, that we have not been able to train with him nor are we going to. We’ll do it there, because I don’t want to use it playing before on Saturday. It’s not a bad ball. What happens is that Select has several models, but we will see all of this as we go along and we will adapt,” he pointed out.

To finish, he referred to the arbitration disaster that usually prevails in the Champions League, with referees who allow so much play that they turn futsal into wrestling. “It worries me. The great advantage is that we have a lot of experience and the players know what we are going to find. The referee tells you to keep playing while they are hitting you from all sides and you also have to give. The key will be to understand as soon as possible the level of arbitration permissiveness that will be. If they allow a lot, then they will have to put their hands on it and shoot the opponent every time and if not, then they will have to play with much less contact”, concluded a Jesús Velasco whose first season on the bench resulted in four titles, including the Champions.