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Sergi says goodbye to his “candy” in Vigo

Sant Joan DespíSergi Barjuan knew from the outset that his contract as Barça’s interim coach would last a maximum of three games. In the first, the team had some good play against Alabès but continued to show defensive fragility and lack of goals to beat one of the rivals at the bottom of the standings at the Camp Nou. Against Dynamo Kiev they did not spare the suffering, but Barça were able to overcome a decisive match to continue to depend on themselves in the Champions League. And now Celta are coming to Vigo, on a stage where Barça already know what it’s like to stumble over the last few years.

Despite the fact that last season the team -then led by Ronald Koeman- easily beat the Galician team (0-3), in 2019-20 they could only draw (2-2) and the previous season they were defeated 2-0. “They will put a very strong high pressure on us to complicate the exit of the ball. In terms of play they are a team that has a lot of mobility in the middle of the field and we need to be aware that our pressure will have to be different than that of Kiev. We will try to be protagonists with the ball. We have worked on it and we want it to be reflected on the pitch “, explained Sergi.

Despite his brief stint in the first team, the Franqueses del Vallès coach wanted to explain that he had focused on “trying to be close and honest with the players” and also “providing them with some tactical details” to help a team that this start to the season has seemed to be not worked out tactically enough. For Sergi, who did not train until a few months ago, being able to lead the first team has been like “savoring a candy”. “I already knew that it had an expiration date and on Sunday I will probably work with the subsidiary again, but I still have the last step. We will work hard because Celta will demand a lot from us. Historically it is a team that has created problems for us. If we play like Kiev I will be happy.

Eight casualties in the Barça expedition

Barça have traveled to Vigo with eight casualties: Neto -the last to fall, in his case due to a feverish process-, Dembélé, Dest, Agüero, Braithwaite, Sergi Roberto, Piqué and Pedri. With full nursing, Sergi has little room for maneuver and will surely repeat the eleven with which he left for Kiev, with a single change: that of Ronald Araujo for Clément Lenglet.

The coach will not be able to count on Dembélé’s shock this time, who returned to play after more than five months (164 days) and entered the game in the 65th minute, earlier than expected, as Sergi himself explained after the win against Dinamo. The French winger now has an “elongation in the semimembranosus of his left thigh” that will leave him out of action for two to four weeks. “Coaches have to make decisions. We saw Dembélé play, we won and we were all happy. But yesterday [per dijous] unfortunately he was injured. Football has these risks “, commented the ephemeral Barça coach.

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