Regardless of Villarreal’s tactics at the Madrigal, the FC Barcelona manager’s only plan is to win the game
In his press conference before Wednesday’s cup semi-final second leg against Villarreal, Luis Enrique Martínez spoke about how his team is going into the final stretch of the season, with three major titles still in play. “This is the perfect moment in terms of results and form,” he said. “And let’s hope we can turn that form into titles.”
Villarreal
“They have a great all-round squad, and a great coach. They have the resources to make things difficult for any team. We know we’ll have to play well and go out to win the match”.
“The Villarreal that I know from the league was very different in the games that we played against therm. They don’t go in for so much combination football. But I imagine that tomorrow they’ll take a more attacking approach. They are one of the best teams in the championship”.
“We won’t know what kind of Villarreal we are facing until the game has started. After losing 3-1 in the first leg, they are going to have to start coming at us at some point”.
Coping with the return leg
“The aim is to win the match. That way there can be no surprises”.
“It does matter to me that Luis Suárez and Mascherano are on yellows. It’s something I’ll take into consideration”.
“It would be huge to score a goal. We won’t be holding out for a draw. We’ll take the game seriously and play our usual attacking football. The idea is for us to have control of the ball”.
The strikers
“The players that score and give assists are the ones that people notice more. But strikers also have to open up the play, create space, put on pressure when we lose the ball and a lot of other things beside scoring goals”.
Two points off the top
“The idea is always to win all our matches and to reach the end of the season in contention to win all of the different titles. And that’s what we’re doing. But the closer we are to the leaders, so much the better”.