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Xavi: "I like Míchel as a coach, it will be a very tough game"

"For not sentencing we have only lost 2 points, against Espanyol".

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Xavi: "I like Míchel as a coach, it will be a very tough game"

"For not sentencing we have only lost 2 points, against Espanyol"

BARCELONA, 27 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The FC Barcelona coach, Xavi Hernández, praised the Girona FC coach, Míchel, before this Saturday's Catalan derby in LaLiga Santander, a duel that he expects to be "very tough" and complicated as well as important, to momentarily put 6 points in between with Real Madrid and confirm the honorary title of winter champion, to which he does not attach much importance.

"I already liked Míchel as a player at Rayo and as a coach too, one of the ones I like the most. He does interesting things, it's a hard-working team. It's a very difficult start, a difficult opponent and we expect a very tough game away from home" Xavi said at a press conference.

Still about the rival coach, he assured that he is "very intelligent" and that he already was when he played. "He understood the game very well. He transmits it as a player, he plays without complexes and goes on the attack. A style that I like. I really like as a coach and how his teams play, very dynamic," he reiterated.

"Girona is a brave team that does different things, very interesting when the ball is released, they are aggressive under pressure and steal the ball in the opposite field. It looks a lot like what we want to play," he acknowledged, in this regard.

That is why he expects a very difficult match against a Girona team that, as a rival, will be "very aggressive and very tough". "Oriol Romeu is a great player, Aleix Garcia too, they have centre-backs, ball outlets... Everything is very even," he said.

If the balance tilts in favor of Barça, they would be confirmed as winter champions. "It's not very important either. It would be a very important victory, three key points. It's a very complicated start but I wouldn't give much importance to being winter champions. Yes, it would be 6 points compared to Madrid ahead of their game on Sunday", be sincere.

As for what happened in the Copa del Rey, with a 1-0 loss against Real Sociedad that could have been complicated, like other games in which Barça does not rule, Xavi was calm and confident. "I'm worried about not ruling the games, but we're taking them out anyway, which is what's important," he said.

"We are winning, we are in a very good situation. We have won a title, we are in the Cup semifinals and we are in a good moment of form. With things to improve, obviously. But we cannot stay with not ruling, although we lack this and it is a detail. At the moment, by not sentencing, we have only lost two points, against Espanyol", he qualified, minimizing importance.

For Xavi, except for the elimination of 'Champions', the season is good. "We are well placed in the League and in the Cup, with the Super Cup title that has given us morale and peace of mind and we are ready to face the Europa League. We can have a great season but we must not let our guard down at any time", he warned his players .

He precisely spoke of several of his players. De Ousmane Dembélé, the best against Real Sociedad, reiterated that it is important for him that he renew. "It's fundamental and different. It's hard to find such decisive players one-on-one. The club knows it and Ousmane knows it and it has generated confidence in him and that's why he's at the extraordinary level he's at. I hope he continues with us for many years ", he asked.

In another situation is Ferran Torres, still suspended in the League. "Ferran is fine. He is a player who always trains well, and whatever minutes he plays, he does so with the same dynamics and does not give up. He is a professional and an example. For a coach he is a guarantee, he always works and runs and he leaves his skin for the team. It generates tremendous confidence in me. It is true that he needs a goal for his confidence", commented the coach.

And he announced, without considering it closed, that Marcos Alonso will renew. "It is something that was being discussed. I am very happy with Marcos. First, as a professional because he has adapted in an extraordinary way. And as a footballer he is solvent, proven, with the maturity to play in different positions. He is a high-level signing, little by little it is being important and it will be so in the next games, for sure", he predicted.

Regarding Pedri, who has reached 100 games, he assured that he has "extraordinary" numbers. "He has a brutal present and future. And not only him. We have a very young and very good generation of footballers. Pedri is one of them, I have seen his talent in few players," he celebrated.