Abelardo Fernández says Luis Enrique has developed Barça's play

Abelardo speaks with Barça TV at Sporting de Gijón's training facility. / FCB
The former FC Barcelona defender and current coach of Sporting sits down to talk before his team hosts the Catalans on Wednesday evening at El Molinón

Just days ahead of FC Barcelona’s league visit to Sporting, Abelardo Fernández spoke to Barça TV and www.fcbarcelona.com to talk about FCB’s current state of form and analyse Wednesday’s clash between the two at El Molinón.

Abelardo played for FC Barcelona from 1994–2002 and is now the head coach of Sporting. He knows what his team is up against. “It’s a 90-minute game and anything can happen. We will try to make things very difficult for them, but Barça is unbeatable at the moment and it’s tough to do damage against them.”

Nonetheless, he acknowledged that a draw would be a good result for Sporting.

“We will never settle for a draw before the game is played, even hough it would be a great result against Barça.”

Abelardo also recognised the great work being done by Luis Enrique, with whom he maintains a friendship. “We’re pretty close with him, we talk almost every week. He has developed Barça’s game, he’s doing a wonderful job and I think he’ll break a lot of records.”

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Abelardo also discussed some of the great memories he has of his time at Barça.

“Over the eight years I spent at the club they treated me very well, I have a lot of friends in Catalonia. I miss the great atmosphere in the dressing room.”

He also had words of praise for Alen Halilović, the Barça B youngester who is currently on loan to Sporting.

And when the subject turned back to the coming matchup, Abelardo gave a prediction.

“Barça’s unbeaten streak is going to end on Wednesday at El Molinón,” he said wryly, before adding, “After that I want to Barça and Luis Enrique to win everything.”

Take a look at the video to see what else he had to say.