Xavi takes pressure off his players before playing against Inter: "I'd like to play myself"

The Champions League anthem will sound a few minutes before nine o'clock at the Spotify Camp Nou.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
12 October 2022 Wednesday 00:36
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Xavi takes pressure off his players before playing against Inter: "I'd like to play myself"

The Champions League anthem will sound a few minutes before nine o'clock at the Spotify Camp Nou. It is (or was) the prelude to the big nights. That music gets footballers and fans into a trance. If Barcelona does not want it to be the penultimate time it is heard this season in its stadium, it cannot lose tonight against Inter Milan. The Blaugrana have marked the game on the calendar to relaunch themselves after saving the leadership of the League with much suffering over the weekend and to reconcile with the top European competition once and for all.

After the poor aim in Munich and the controversy in Milan, a victory against Inter would clear the way and act as the sporting lever that Laporta's Barça lacks. Winning tonight has the prize of paving the classification for the round of 16, depending on himself in the two remaining days, the next one against Bayern, yes...

Xavi's project, with seven top-level signings, is facing the test of cotton and is being examined when only October 12 has been reached. A defeat, like the one against the Nerazzurri last week, would be fatal, the abyss a few days before visiting the Bernabeu. A draw would be a lesser evil, but the Blaugrana would be at the mercy of Inter... and Bayern.

So it is a game to scare away ghosts, to attack more than to defend and to be daring and not let yourself be possessed or paralyzed by fear. Perhaps for this reason, Xavi Hernández almost dressed as Cruyff before Wembley. “It's a game to enjoy: the setting is spectacular, the Camp Nou will be full, we're playing at home, with the people... I hope it's a magical night. It's a final”, explained the Barça coach.

In 2011, before the second leg of the semifinals between the same two teams, Piqué asked the fans to press on until the Inter footballers hated their profession for a few hours. For Xavi, today is a day for his players to feel the passion, live a historic night and enjoy wearing a Blaugrana. The coach himself would like to put on his boots and jump onto the pitch. “I would like to be a player and be able to play myself. I would like that more than being a coach. It is an opportunity ”, he transferred to them, always hopeful and optimistic, to take the pressure off them.

The Egarense coach is so eager for it to go well and so ambitious that he does not sign the 1-0, the victory by the minimum. "If you give me a choice, I'd like a 2-0," the coach wished, to regain goal average against the Nerazzurri.

“I'm keeping the second part of Milan and the first of Celta. We must not lower our guard for a moment tomorrow. There is a desire for revenge with Inter”, he assured. “The indignation of Milan, which serves to vindicate us. We deserved more there. May the internal rage serve to play better”.

Barcelona is clear about the match that awaits them. “We will see an Inter similar to the one we saw in Milan. They are defensive. We will go on the attack and we will be brave. We are worried about attacking better. They have educated me to attack”, proposed Xavi. Something that the interista coach did not like. “We are not a defensive team at all. We were forced to play like this because they squeezed us. But we conceded little, and Onana did not have to make any big interventions”, Simone Inzaghi puffed out.

The Italians, with three big centre-backs surrounding Lewandowski, will try to play off the hosts' anxiety as the minutes go by if the score doesn't move. It will be a psychological battle. "It's everyone's day, the team. We all have to take a step forward. Lewandowski has to be important, but you have to associate more with him so that he feels more comfortable, ”he analyzed. In addition, the coach has the support of the Camp Nou in the best version of him. “The fans have understood. Tickets are sold out. The Camp Nou has to be a boiler from the start. We are going to give everything so that they keep the three points”, he promised. The Champions is in the air.