'Two-thirds of Barca fans expect defeat at Old Trafford'
Last Thursday's first leg between FC Barcelona and United thrilled the football world – and surprised many in Catalonia, who had expected the hosts to win the match at Camp Nou.
Reds season-ticket holder Dave Martin was in an ideal position to observe both the game and the reaction to it – he lives in Sitges, just over 20 miles from Barcelona's home ground.
This was a United away game in his adopted homeland, and he was more than happy with the way Erik ten Hag's men performed.
This was a United away game in his adopted homeland, and he was more than happy with the way Erik ten Hag's men performed.
So how does Catalonia feel ahead of the tie's conclusion at Old Trafford on Thursday? Dave filled us in on the mood amongst Barcelona supporters...
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What did you think of the first leg? Did you go to Camp Nou, and were you in with the Barca fans or United?
“I was at the game, in the away end, and my son was with a friend in the home end, because I couldn’t get two tickets in the away end. It was an excellent game. I thought we played really well. I felt like we should have had one or two more; there were a couple of chances that we had. But I guess they also had opportunities. I think we’ve got a really good chance of knocking them out. The team should be positive about it. Ten Hag is saying all the right messages about getting the fans buoyant. Sometimes as English fans you go into these games a little bit pessimistic, and psychologically some of the foreign teams go in with a positive manner. And sometimes that has given them a bit of an edge, I think.”
How did the Barcelona fans and Catalan media react to the result, and the performances of both teams?
“Barcelona fans are always very optimistic going into games. To the verge of – I’m not going to say arrogance – but they expect to beat every team that they play against. So coming out of the game, going back to where I live on the train, you could hear people saying: ‘Oh, the Europa League’s not that important.’ And then when you talk to them, they’re nervous about this [next] game. They don’t think this it’s going to be an easy game at all. The same way we’ve gone to Barcelona in the past needing a result, and having that same nervousness. They think it’s likely they’re going to go out.
“In one of the newspapers – I can’t remember if it was AS or Marca – they did a survey with Barcelona fans after the match, and I think two-thirds of them expect them to go out. There’s only a quarter of them that feel that they’ll still go through, with the rest undecided. Which is unusual. I spoke to a friend this morning, actually, and he thinks that they’ll go out. They haven’t got a lot of big experience in Europe away from home in the last couple of years. They’ve generally come short against most of the big teams. There’s a worry that they’re missing two of their best midfielders [Pedri and Gavi] through injury and suspension, and they’re struggling up front a bit. Lewandowski is obviously a great striker, but he’s coming towards the end of his career and there is no-one else to replace him. If it’s a good game game under the floodlights, and it’s fast, with the way United can play in Europe, they think they may struggle.”
“Barcelona fans are always very optimistic going into games. To the verge of – I’m not going to say arrogance – but they expect to beat every team that they play against. So coming out of the game, going back to where I live on the train, you could hear people saying: ‘Oh, the Europa League’s not that important.’ And then when you talk to them, they’re nervous about this [next] game. They don’t think this it’s going to be an easy game at all. The same way we’ve gone to Barcelona in the past needing a result, and having that same nervousness. They think it’s likely they’re going to go out.
“In one of the newspapers – I can’t remember if it was AS or Marca – they did a survey with Barcelona fans after the match, and I think two-thirds of them expect them to go out. There’s only a quarter of them that feel that they’ll still go through, with the rest undecided. Which is unusual. I spoke to a friend this morning, actually, and he thinks that they’ll go out. They haven’t got a lot of big experience in Europe away from home in the last couple of years. They’ve generally come short against most of the big teams. There’s a worry that they’re missing two of their best midfielders [Pedri and Gavi] through injury and suspension, and they’re struggling up front a bit. Lewandowski is obviously a great striker, but he’s coming towards the end of his career and there is no-one else to replace him. If it’s a good game game under the floodlights, and it’s fast, with the way United can play in Europe, they think they may struggle.”
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You probably watch more La Liga than most United fans. Do you think last week was a fair representation of where Barcelona are as a side?
“I don’t watch as much Barcelona as I watch United, of course, but people were saying Barcelona were favourites going into the first leg. I genuinely didn’t see it that way. I always thought we had a reasonable chance, because they’re not actually scoring as many goals as they used to in the past. In some of their away matches, they’re kind of grinding out 1-0 wins, which is what you do when you win championships. But they [the fans] are just not used to that. They won 1-0 at Villarreal recently, 1-0 at Atletico, 1-0 at Valencia, 1-0 at Mallorca. So they’ve got this tight defence, but they’re also not scoring [a lot]. Lewandowski started the season on fire but, like a lot of older players that we’ve had – Ibrahimovic, Cavani – it’s very difficult for them to keep at that level all the way through the season.”
“I don’t watch as much Barcelona as I watch United, of course, but people were saying Barcelona were favourites going into the first leg. I genuinely didn’t see it that way. I always thought we had a reasonable chance, because they’re not actually scoring as many goals as they used to in the past. In some of their away matches, they’re kind of grinding out 1-0 wins, which is what you do when you win championships. But they [the fans] are just not used to that. They won 1-0 at Villarreal recently, 1-0 at Atletico, 1-0 at Valencia, 1-0 at Mallorca. So they’ve got this tight defence, but they’re also not scoring [a lot]. Lewandowski started the season on fire but, like a lot of older players that we’ve had – Ibrahimovic, Cavani – it’s very difficult for them to keep at that level all the way through the season.”
What was the verdict on Casemiro and Varane’s return to Camp Nou?
“They weren’t singing very nice things about them at the stadium! Particularly Casemiro. You’re split here between the newspapers. Some are pro-Barcelona and some are pro-Real Madrid. Obviously the pro-Real Madrid papers will paint out that Casemiro is great and he’s come from the Real Madrid training and experience. You could see on the pitch that it meant a lot to them, and it makes a big difference when you’ve got players with that experience. I think Casemiro has only lost once in 10 games there, and Varane similar. So they had the experience to go there and get the job done. I was disappointed with the second goal we gave away, giving the ball away so high up the pitch, but the papers were very complimentary about Casemiro especially. But the fans weren’t singing very nice things about him in Spanish! All the good players have to go through that though. And I think he’s also the sort of player that thrives in that sort of atmosphere. I think he really enjoyed going back there and giving them a difficult game. And I think he’ll be really looking to put them out of the competition. It would be nice for both of them.”
“They weren’t singing very nice things about them at the stadium! Particularly Casemiro. You’re split here between the newspapers. Some are pro-Barcelona and some are pro-Real Madrid. Obviously the pro-Real Madrid papers will paint out that Casemiro is great and he’s come from the Real Madrid training and experience. You could see on the pitch that it meant a lot to them, and it makes a big difference when you’ve got players with that experience. I think Casemiro has only lost once in 10 games there, and Varane similar. So they had the experience to go there and get the job done. I was disappointed with the second goal we gave away, giving the ball away so high up the pitch, but the papers were very complimentary about Casemiro especially. But the fans weren’t singing very nice things about him in Spanish! All the good players have to go through that though. And I think he’s also the sort of player that thrives in that sort of atmosphere. I think he really enjoyed going back there and giving them a difficult game. And I think he’ll be really looking to put them out of the competition. It would be nice for both of them.”
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Many United fans hadn’t seen too much of Pedri and Gavi before last week’s match. How big a factor is their absence for the second leg?
“They’re very typical Spanish players – good on the ball, great at passing – and they’ll definitely miss them. My son goes through the Sitges academy here, and a lot of focus is on ball retention and passing. Although my son’s a defender, they don’t spend a lot of time in defensive positions; they spend a lot of the time at a very young age on holding onto the ball, passing the ball, moving the ball around the pitch. They have really good teams [in the Barcelona academy]. But Pedri and Gavi are still very young, and they get compared to Xavi and Iniesta, which is a big burden to put on their shoulders. It’s like everyone’s the next Ryan Giggs at United, and it very rarely works out that they are. But they are very good players and they will miss them on Thursday. But they are young and they are inexperienced, and they didn’t dictate the last game. There were times United had good possession of the ball and were able to play around them. So that would have been frustrating for the Barcelona players, because they’re used to having things go their way. Busquets will come back in, and he will probably be more important for Barcelona at Old Trafford – having an old head and being more defensive, and he knows how to run the clock down if they get their noses in front.”
“They’re very typical Spanish players – good on the ball, great at passing – and they’ll definitely miss them. My son goes through the Sitges academy here, and a lot of focus is on ball retention and passing. Although my son’s a defender, they don’t spend a lot of time in defensive positions; they spend a lot of the time at a very young age on holding onto the ball, passing the ball, moving the ball around the pitch. They have really good teams [in the Barcelona academy]. But Pedri and Gavi are still very young, and they get compared to Xavi and Iniesta, which is a big burden to put on their shoulders. It’s like everyone’s the next Ryan Giggs at United, and it very rarely works out that they are. But they are very good players and they will miss them on Thursday. But they are young and they are inexperienced, and they didn’t dictate the last game. There were times United had good possession of the ball and were able to play around them. So that would have been frustrating for the Barcelona players, because they’re used to having things go their way. Busquets will come back in, and he will probably be more important for Barcelona at Old Trafford – having an old head and being more defensive, and he knows how to run the clock down if they get their noses in front.”
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You have two young boys who are United fans living in Catalonia. The outcome of this tie must be really important for them, given most of their classmates support Barca?
“Having played the way we did in the Camp Nou, both my sons went in school with their heads held up! We put on such a good performance, and I think Ten Hag was right: we should have won the game. And I think the Barcelona fans, in their hearts, thought the same. Before the first leg, there was a lot of talk in the papers about the 4-0 game in 1994 with the three-foreigners rule. About how many European Cups Barcelona have won. There’s been nothing like that since. Whatever the outcome, I think the kids can go into school with their heads held high, and not worry about too much ribbing! I don’t think Barcelona are capable of giving us the kind of lesson that they maybe did 10 or 12 years ago.”
“Having played the way we did in the Camp Nou, both my sons went in school with their heads held up! We put on such a good performance, and I think Ten Hag was right: we should have won the game. And I think the Barcelona fans, in their hearts, thought the same. Before the first leg, there was a lot of talk in the papers about the 4-0 game in 1994 with the three-foreigners rule. About how many European Cups Barcelona have won. There’s been nothing like that since. Whatever the outcome, I think the kids can go into school with their heads held high, and not worry about too much ribbing! I don’t think Barcelona are capable of giving us the kind of lesson that they maybe did 10 or 12 years ago.”
How do you see the second leg going?
“You want to balance expectations that we should beat them with the knowledge that they are experienced at running down the clock. If things go against us, it could be that you see a lot of players going down for periods of time and using the crowd [against United]. I think it’s important that Old Trafford stays as loud as it can all the way through, and that heads don’t go down if we go behind, because I think we’ve got the firepower to put goals past them. Although away goals don’t count, I still think we’ll be too strong for them. Ten Hag is doing such a great job, I think we’ll come through it. If we play the way that we can, against a Barcelona side missing a few of their better players, I think we could even win by a couple.”
“You want to balance expectations that we should beat them with the knowledge that they are experienced at running down the clock. If things go against us, it could be that you see a lot of players going down for periods of time and using the crowd [against United]. I think it’s important that Old Trafford stays as loud as it can all the way through, and that heads don’t go down if we go behind, because I think we’ve got the firepower to put goals past them. Although away goals don’t count, I still think we’ll be too strong for them. Ten Hag is doing such a great job, I think we’ll come through it. If we play the way that we can, against a Barcelona side missing a few of their better players, I think we could even win by a couple.”
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