FCBARCELONA.CAT

02.03.2007 14:31

Rijkaard with one eye on Liverpool

The blaugrana coach recognises the importance of the game against Sevilla “it’ll be immensely important, but not definitive”, and for this, he is not setting aside the game against Liverpool next week.

Frank Rijkaard knows how important the game against Juande Ramos’ Sevilla and therefore has decided against resting his top players. His reasons behind not taking Deco, Thuram and Motta are: “I’m resting the Deco and Thuram, wheras Motta has a slight knock”. He also wished to highlight that “there is no vengeful thinking in the Barça camp”, following Sevilla’s victory in the European Supercup.

Immensely strong Sevilla

The Dutch coach made no effort to be sparing in his praise for the opposition team: “They are a great team. Tactically they are well-disciplined. They’ve played for a while together now and they are one of the strongest teams in the league at the moment”. Regarding the battle for the title, Rijkaard said: “There’s pressure on both teams to come away with three points”.

Sevilla derby

Regarding the last game between Betis and Sevilla, which ended with some ugly scenes, including a bottle hitting coach Juande Ramos and leaving him unconscious, Rijkaard added: “It’s such a shame what happened. I feel sorry for him and I hope there’s no repeat of this kind of incident towards any coach”.

Eto’o

Rijkaard also spoke of the availability of Samuel Eto’o to play in the game this Saturday. The Dutch coach used the word “dosage” to speak of the of the Cameroon player to play in the Sanchez Pizjuan stadium: “Eto’o is ready to play, probably not quite the full 90 minutes yet though. We’ve spoken with him, the medical and we’re going to be intelligent in our decisions”.


3-4-3

“We’ve only played one game using this system and it’s worked well” said Rijkaard when he was questioned over his tactical decisions he used at the Romareda in the second leg victory over Zaragoza in the Copa del Rey quarter final.