"Eibar beating Barça is a great story for football"
"Seeing the underdogs get one over on the big sides is great for the game of football and more so for us", observed Eibar's coach Mendilibar.
With the visit of Barcelona to Ipurua can you feel the level of expectation?
We’re not used to having so many cameras here. We’re well aware of our visitors this weekend and what we need to do to contain them
You head into Sunday’s game after a negative run of matches…
That is true. We played really bad against Las Palmas, especially in the first half. Against Celta we didn’t acquit ourselves so well either. However on Wednesday against Sevilla we played really well. Despite not securing any points we had a more positive feeling about that game on Wednesday.
Barça will be without Neymar (sanctioned). Is this good news for you?
I have a sneaking suspicion that he forced that fifth yellow to take a break. Maybe he was fearful of having to come and play us (laughs). Funny that no-one is talking about our players being out.
You managed to beat Barça when you were in charge of Osasuna. What is the secret?
I remember that the temperature that day was below zero degrees and a hard and frozen pitch. They key is to start well and not make any mistakes, especially near to our own goalmouth.
How do you see the game going?
We hope to make life complicated for them. We’ll avoid man-marking as they are so good and can take advantage of the most remote half-chance. What we are aiming to do is pull off a surprise.