Sevilla defender in awe of Barcelona prodigy – ‘Haven’t seen a player like him at his age’

With the international break now ending, the focus shifts back to club football and La Liga leaders FC Barcelona will be in action on Sunday when they take on Sevilla at the Montjuic Olympic Stadium.

The Blaugrana go into the game with a three-point cushion over Real Madrid having lost just one of their nine league matches thus far.

However, Hansi Flick has a couple of fitness concerns heading into the match, with key forwards Lamine Yamal and Robert Lewandowski returning with minor fitness problems from international duty.

Sevilla’s Adria Pedrosa praises Yamal

Even as doubts persist about Yamal’s availability to face Sevilla on Sunday night, Los Nervionenses defender Adria Pedrosa has come out and lavished praise on the Barcelona prodigy.

Pedrosa – a left-back will be in direct battle with Yamal if the Barça gem features against the Andalusian club this weekend. And the 26-year-old was in awe of the teenage sensation as he said:

“I haven’t seen a player like him at his age, so decisive.”

Opening up on how he plans to deal with the Barcelona forward, the Sevilla ace added: “You don’t have to be obsessed with this type of player, just stay focused for the whole game.

“Don’t put more pressure on yourself than you already have. I’ve faced other great players and I deal with it naturally.”

Pedrosa came through the ranks at Barcelona’s local rivals, RCD Espanyol, and as such has featured in plenty of Catalan derbies over the years.

Discussing the difference in facing the Blaugrana with Espanyol and now with Sevilla, he remarked:

“It’s true that I’ve played a lot of derbies against Barcelona, but there it was more sentimental. Here we are in a team where we have to compete in all those games to win them. Last year we played against them twice and we did it on a level playing field.”

Talking about his and the team’s mindset heading into Sunday’s clash, Pedrosa insisted that Sevilla will go in with the belief that they can beat Barcelona.

“I’m here to say that we don’t have to go there thinking that we’re not going to win. We have to go out there to win. Barcelona are in a very good moment, but I think we can try to take the three points,” he said.

Source: MARCA