PSG win will spur Barca: Puyol
dubai — Spain and FC Barcelona legend Carles Puyol believes that the club’s historic comeback against Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) will spur them on to become the champions of Europe.
In one of the most brilliant fightbacks ever seen in football, Barcelona overturned a 4-0 deficit against the French Ligue 1 side at the Parc des Princes in Paris, to whip up a fascinating 6-1 win at their fortress — the Camp Nou.
The Catalans went through to the quarterfinals 6-5 on aggregate and the comeback was hailed as a miracle. And former Barcelona captain Puyol said that such a comeback would have given them a boost to go the whole hog.
Of course they can. They will, as they’ve always done, fight for all titles,” Puyol said on the sidelines of the du Football Champions finals at the Dubai Mall on Saturday night.
“A comeback like this gives you strength and more motivation to keep going and fight for the trophy. Overcoming adversity is important but the most important is to win the title,” added the 38-year-old, who won six La Liga and 3 Champions League titles with Barcelona.
But the decorated Spanish club face another difficult test with them set to square off against Italian giants Juventus in the quarterfinals, with the first leg to be played out in Turin on April 11. The return leg is at the Camp Nou on April 18. It it set to be a repeat of the 2014-15 final which Barcelona won 3-1 in Berlin.
Puyol, who was a one-club man, having played for Barcelona for 15 years, 10 as captain, during which he racked up 21 titles, reckoned it will be tough against Juventus but felt Barcelona are favourites heading into the tie.
“After the comeback Barcelona had in their last match, they are considered the favourites. After trailing 4-0 (against PSG), logically they had more possibilities to get eliminated than to advance. But they believed, they fought for it, and they came back. And now they are favourites to win in my opinion. It’s true that they showed that one bad day can cost them dearly, they have to concentrate because all knockouts are going to be very difficult and we’ll see what happens. Juventus are a very tough opponent and Barcelona have to play at a very high level to stop them,” said Puyol,
A comeback like this gives you strength and more motivation to keep going and fight for the trophy Carles Puyol
who appeared in 593 games for the Catalan club.
Barcelona are searching for a new coach after Luis Enrique decided to step down after three trophy-laden seasons with the club. A number of names are doing the rounds like former Chile and present Sevilla coach Jorge Sampaoli, Athletic Bilbao’s Ernesto Valverde and the players favourite Juan Carlos Unzue, who is the assistant coach to Enrique.
Puyol though, didn’t want to be drawn into the topic.
“I don’t know. It’s not my job to be concerned with this. Surely the directors will choose the right person to lead the club. Right now, there are still important things to focus on, you have to live in the present and the near future. There are still many months ahead of them. It’s important to stay focused now to try and win all the titles,” he said.
“Right now, I think about Luis Enrique who is the coach of the team. It’s not my job to be concerned with this, it’s something for the club to think about,” added Puyol, who was assistant director of football at Barcelona, after calling it a day. He resigned from the post in January 2015.
Meanwhile, Puyol also backed his former coach Pep Guardiola despite the former Barcelona manager enduring a bit of a tough time at Manchester City.
“I think he’s doing a good job. It’s always tough arriving to a new league, with a new mentality and with a very different style of football. I am certain he will win titles with Man City in the future and that they will play brilliant football, the Pep style of play. You have to go step by step and have some patience. It is a different culture, different ways of doing things, and you need to give him time,” Puyol said.
james@khaleejtimes.com