FCBARCELONA.CAT

29.10.2008 12:55

Arnau impressed by Barça’s football

Edgar Fornós

With Francesc Arnau in goal, Málaga CF were promoted to the first division last season. This is the Catalan stopper’s eighth season with the Andalusian outfit, and he is looking forward to meeting his former club.

Málaga are next up for FC Barcelona, the two teams that have featured Francesc Arnau in goal. The Catalan goalkeeper is one of the many stars to have grown up at La Masia, and after representing Barça at several youth levels, he made his first team debut in the 1996/97 season.

It was not until 2000/01 that he won a regular place as the first team’s second choice keeper, but before the year was out he had signed for Malaga, who were also a first division club at the time.

Impressed with Barça

Under Pep Guardiola, Barça are looking great and the excellent form of the Catalan club has not gone unnoticed in Malaga. Says Arnau “Barça is the team that is playing best and not only that, they are getting good results. They are a very hard team to beat and it’ll be a difficult game. I prefer playing at La Rosaleda because we have a better chance of winning there.”

Playing against his old team is always “a very special game for me because of all I experienced at FC Barcelona. I left a long time ago but I’ll never forget my time at Barça”.

Valdés, “a great keeper”

Víctor Valdés has kept three clean sheets in a row, and Francesc Arnau is a fervent admirer of the Barça goalkeeper. “Víctor is a great keeper, he takes criticism well, whether it is good or bad. He has been first choice keeper for Barcelona for many years and unless there is a twist in the tale, he’ll be as historic a figure for the club as Andoni Zubizarreta was.”

Arnau also spoke about the way goalkeepers come in for so much criticism. “What keeper hasn’t been criticised? We all have been at some point. We goalkeepers have to learn to live with it. If an outfield player has a bad game you don’t notice it as much, but if a keeper gets it wrong, the ball goes in. There is nobody behind to help you.”

Best wishes for Guardiola

Arnau played in the same side as the Barça manager and reckons “he was a magnificent team-mate, and a great person too. I think he’s an intelligent sort, and he applies all of his knowledge about football, I’m sure things will work out well for him. I wish him all the luck in the world.”