Xavi: “We have to be brave to try to impose our idea”

Barcelona, 19 Mar Barcelona coach Xavi Hernández explained that his team “has to be brave” to “try to impose” their “idea” before Sunday's' classic 'against Real Madrid at Santiago Bernabeu. “I will try to convey to our players that you have to have personality, that you have to be brave. Because of my experience as a footballer, I can transmit calm and tranquility, there are 3 points and nothing more,” added the Barça coach in this regard at a press conference. Barça accumulates seven 'classics' between the Spanish League and Super Cup without beating Real Madrid, a streak that Xavi wants to dynamite. “We will try to change this dynamic, history is there to change it and tomorrow we have a great opportunity. But we're on the right track. Tomorrow's result will not change anything, although it would reinforce what we are working on,” he said. Regarding Real Madrid, Xavi opined that it is “chameleonic, you never know if they will press you up or wait for you in the low block, maybe I visualize a match like the one in the Spanish Super Cup, we have the ball from the 30th minute and they go to the counter as arrows”. The whites must face the match with the important absence of Karim Benzema, a casualty Xavi explained that it will not change Barça's approach. “It has been one of the best '9' in the world for two or three years, for them it is a noticeable low. But for us nothing changes, the approach will be the same”, he said. Instead, he ruled out that Gerard Pique could be short in the 'classic' despite the discomfort he drags on the adductor. “With the passing of the minutes it somehow slows him down and hurts, but he is ready to compete,” said the Barça coach. Another player who will surely start at Santiago Bernabeu will be Sergio Busquets, who has not been called up for the next matches of the Spanish national team to have a break. “I appreciate it,” Xavi said. “But he deserves it. Luis (Enrique) in this case has done very well, also for the selection. The performance and the number of matches is there,” he justified. Asked whether a Barça win would give him hope to win the League, Xavi was not optimistic. “Honestly, talking about winning the League I see it remote and difficult,” he admitted. In the event of a victory, the Barça team would be 12 points behind Real Madrid with one match less. “But winning tomorrow would bring us closer to our goal of qualifying for the Champions League,” he said.