FCBARCELONA.CAT

14.10.2009 14:58

Alves: “We’re expecting the best Valencia”

Jesús Carrillo

The word from the Valencia camp is that manager Unai Emery will be missing some key players for the visit of FC Barcelona on Saturday but Alves is taking nothing for granted. “We’ll prepare the match to meet the best Valencia”.

Dani Alves returned from international duty two days ahead of schedule and resumed training with the Barça squad today (Wednesday). He told reporters: “The match in the Mestalla is always one of the most difficult of the season. We experienced that last year and Valencia will be a very complicated opponent for us”.

David Villa

Dani Alves made special mention of Valencia’s Spanish international striker David Villa: “He’s very important for them. Villa shoulders the responsibility for their attacking game and he is their main goal scorer. If he doesn’t play it’ll be good news for us. If confirmed, his absence will be very important”.

“We don’t need to play in the Mestalla in order to find out how far we can go this year. The Valencia game is just another step along the path we’ve marked out for ourselves. If we beat them we’ll open up a gap on a team that we’ll be competing against at the end of the season so we have to go for a win and take our chance”.

Just statistics

A win on Saturday would create a Club record of consecutive wins at the start of the league season. “That’s just statistics. It’s not important. We’re very strong both at home and away. I insist that nobody needs to wait for the Valencia result in order to measure our aspirations”.

As for the atmosphere he’s expecting in the Mestalla: “All our away matches are identical. A lot of pressure, but we’re used to it”.

Messi and Argentina

Alves expressed his concern at the criticism being heaped on Leo Messi in Argentina: “It’s a surprise. He’s the best player in the world but he can’t do it by himself. Without wishing to upset anyone in Argentina, I don’t think you can compare the way Messi plays for Barcelona with the way he plays for Argentina. Simply because Barcelona plays much better than Argentina”.

Nerves in Argentina

“In Argentina they’re very nervous about not qualifying for the World Cup and they’re firing off against everything. Leo can take them to the World Cup and I hope he can demonstrate that tonight. A World Cup without the best player in the world wouldn’t be the same. Argentina has a problem but it’s not Messi. By contrast, Brazil has kept the same group and we’re through to the World Cup with thee games to spare. We’ve won titles. Argentina changes players too much. You don’t make a team like that”.