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8 months ago
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With the PSG defeat now in the rear-view mirror, Barcelona have turned their focus towards another gargantuan encounter coming their way this Sunday.
The Blaugrana will be facing off against arch-rivals Real Madrid in the second La Liga El Clasico of the season at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Barcelona are eight points shy of Real Madrid in the table with seven games left and a win for Xavi Hernandez & co. would cut the difference to five and put them in a position for a late tilt at the title.
Gundogan outlines what Barcelona need to do
Speaking to the media ahead of Sunday’s clash (h/t FCB World), Barcelona midfield mainstay Ilkay Gundogan elaborated on what the team needs to do and needs to avoid if they are to emerge triumphant against Real Madrid.
Barça have already faced Real Madrid twice this season and came out on the losing side on both occasions – once in the league and the Spanish Super Cup final each.
And Gundogan, who had been critical of the team after the Clasico loss last year, pointed out what had gone wrong for them in the previous games against Los Blancos, saying:
“We will play against the same people we faced before. We faced them this season in the first leg of the league and then also in the Super Cup final.
“We weren’t that bad but I think we gave them a lot of very easy chances to score goals, and those are some mistakes that we obviously want to avoid.”
Highlighting what Barcelona must do to come out on top, he added: “We want to have possession and we want to be patient and take advantage of the chances that we will create.”
Looking back at the defeat against PSG, Gundogan stressed that the team must use those learnings and do better on Sunday, as he said:
“It is clear that we are very disappointed with the result and going out in this unfortunate way, but football is good sometimes because the next challenge is right in front of us, playing in El Clásico a few days after the defeat.
“We know that we will start from scratch again and we have a big match ahead of us. Coming in, we’re preparing as well as we can to go out there in a big game and try to win it.”
“Real Madrid seem very stable at the moment and it is clear that they achieved a great win for them, which gives them more confidence, but we will try to use the defeat against Paris to learn and put in a perfect performance on Sunday.”
Gundogan wants Barcelona to learn from PSG defeat. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)On the PSG game
Gundogan then touched upon the defeat to PSG, stating that things like that can happen especially considering that Barcelona have a very young squad.
“A match like Paris may happen, and this is normal, especially as our team has several young players,” said Gundogan.
“Maybe they don’t have a lot of experience, especially in that competition. But if you look at the previous knockout matches against Napoli or even the first round in Paris, we actually did well.”
The German international stressed it was important to use the frustrations from that game to do well in the future.
“With all the frustration and disappointment that this match brings, I think there is something that every player, especially the younger ones, to use as motivation to improve their performance next year, you have that experience in your pocket.
“Next year, when you face similar circumstances, you’ll realize, oh, this happened last year, we did this and that. And now you can use it to try to avoid mistakes you may have made before.”
Citing his own career as an example, he added: “I played in the Champions League in my career, I think 12 times, 12 seasons so far, or maybe even more. I won it only recently.”
