João Cancelo (29 years old) is back to 100% after the ‘scare’ before the game against Athletes. The Portuguese will rejoin the Barça team normally after the national team break and will once again be a key player for Xavi Hernandez in this important stretch of the season. The Portuguese full-back spoke to the media A Bola before concentrating on his national team and spoke about current Barça news, the Championsof young people and of Xaviwhich, as the former Benficahe “sacrificed” himself for the team:
Read also
– Barça is once again in the Champions League quarterfinals for the first time since the 2019/2020 season. How do you see the confrontation with PSG?
In the Champions League all teams are strong. PSG is a team that has great players and a great coach whom I appreciate very much. It will be a very difficult game, but we will try. We are Barcelona and we will try to play our game and try to win.
– Barcelona, PSG, Atlético de Madrid and Dortmund are, so to speak, on the easier side of the competition. Does this make the Champions League a dream or a reality?
Since I came here it has always been a dream. This club has five Champions Leagues, the last of them in 2015. Let’s dream, we have every right to do so. We are a young team, but with a lot of future and I think we are on the right path. A lot will depend on our games from now on, on how we approach each of them, even in the championship. I have a feeling it could go well.
– Do you think that young people like Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsí, among others, are prepared for games of this magnitude, in a club like Barcelona, which is under great pressure?
I feel that Barcelona is a very difficult club to play mentally. The fans are very demanding even because of the previous teams they had and you can see why there is so much demand and that is good for them. Lamine, Cubarsí, Fermin, Marc Guiu, Héctor… are players who have been training with us since the beginning of the season and are more than prepared to face these challenges.
– On the other side will be Kylian Mbappé. Is it a name that already scares people in the locker room?
I always think that he is a player to keep in mind. He is currently top 3 in the world.
-Who are the other two?
I am a fan of Bernardo Silva. It would also include Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne and Rodri.
– Is the team more psychologically freed since the announcement of Xavi’s departure?
I don’t see it that way, especially because the coach has always been a very correct person with us. I think that if he is not the one who loves the club the most in our team, he will be one of the ones who loves it the most. He is a Barcelona legend and sometimes people forget what he did to be here. He faced the challenge of the club when he was not in the best economic or player level, and that is worthy of praise. It is not only when you win that you have to give value. As a player I valued him a lot and, as I have the pleasure of having him as a coach, I appreciate him even more. Xavi gave us that relief, because he himself wanted to sacrifice himself so that the team could loosen up more.
– Do you also feel that sometimes it is ‘toxic’ to play for Barcelona?
I have a very strong mentality, especially because on a personal level I have gone through a lot of things and I have always looked at life in a positive way. I have gone through worse times in my personal life than in my sporting life. Pressure affects some more than others. It doesn’t affect me much because I created a barrier. From the moment I lost my mother, I was forced to grow up much faster, to be much more mature, to be the leader of my family. Not everyone is like that. Barcelona is a difficult club, but it is the club of my career that I enjoy the most, I always wanted to be here.
2024-03-24 13:46:52
#Xavi #wanted #sacrifice #team #loosen
