Xavi: “The Champions League group is the most complicated in the last 20 years”
The Barça coach is hopeful that Koundé will be registered before the game against Valladolid and wants his team to “come out with all guns blazing” so as not to repeat the mistakes made against Rayo.
Xavi attended the media on Saturday to preview tomorrow’s visit from Valladolid. Barça go into the game looking for their second win of the new season and aiming to build on last week’s result away at Real Sociedad.
Do you expect Valladolid to play a defensive game tomorrow?
We greatly admire [Valladolid coach] Pacheta, he is a brave, noble and hard-working coach, like his teams. Valladolid are a confident team that could have won in Seville last week (the game ended 1-1). They press, they don’t give the ball away. They are a team that does things very well. I hope things work out for us. You have to start the game playing with haste and score soon. If not it will be complicated.
Will you have Koundé tomorrow?
We are in negotiations and we are convinced that tomorrow he will be registered to help us.
What do you think of the Champions group?
We will try to beat all of the teams in the group, but it is the most difficult group in the last 20 years. It is a challenge. We are going to go for it.
How essential is it to sign full-backs?
There are different scenarios. I’m looking forward to the end of the market to know what we have. A lot of things can happen, but you have to adapt.