Mascherano: Barca need winning flair for Juve tie
JAVIER MASCHERANO says Barcelona will be going for the win at Juventus in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tonight
Barca face a tough test against Massimiliano Allegri’s men who are unbeaten in their last 21 home games in the Champions League.
However, Mascherano says his team can’t afford to play conservatively and must go for the victory in Turin if they are to progress to the last four.
“If we don’t play to win, it will go badly. We have to play our football to negate Juventus’ strengths,” he said.
“If we go out for a draw, then we’ll definitely have more chance of losing because we’re a team who like to control the game, to be protagonists.
“Juventus have always been a strong and powerful team, in recent years they’ve won the Scudetto in Italy with room to spare.
“This is a team which has had a lot of quality players throughout its history, just as now, so clearly we have to be alert.”
Meanwhile, Mascherano says Barcelona players will support Neymar if he’s suspended for El Clasico against Real Madrid but added that the forward will have to learn from his mistakes.
Neymar was sent off as Barca lost 2-0 to Malaga at the weekend for picking up two bookings and he then proceeded to sarcastically applaud the fourth official as he left the pitch at La Rosaleda.
Referee Jesus Gil Manzano included the incident in his report which means Neymar could be facing a three-game ban -one for the red card and two for the clapping gesture.
Barca play Real Sociedad in La Liga next week and then face Real Ma- drid on April 23 and Mascherano, despite acknowledging Neymar’s mistake, feels a one-game ban would be sufficient.
He said: “Yes, we make mistakes, I have done so more than once, but you can only learn from your errors. But as players we don’t point fingers at each other. The opposite, in fact.
“If something happens to one of us, we group together and try to help them through any difficult situation.”