Andoni Zubizarreta, FC Barcelona’s director of football, was very pleased with the team’s qualification to the semi-finals of the Champions League: “we knew how to suffer, we gathered ourselves and we found the spaces, and we were able to get the equaliser after the 0-1.” According to Zubizarreta, PSG were a very demanding side. “They are a team that play great football, they attack you from the outside and that’s what hurt us. But we, for better or for worse, are like those famed Manchester United or Bayern Munich teams, who were always a threat,” he said.
“We will go up against a great team”
He added: “it feels like it's a duel between the Spanish and German leagues and I really have no preference. I don’t care if we play first at home or away.” The Club’s director of football went on to say that Barça had worked “very hard in the tie in order to be present in the draw on Friday.”
Praise for Valdés and Messi
Lastly, Zubizarreta had special words of praise for Messi and Valdés. On the Argentine he said that “he has a sort of footballing power about him and he’s capable of intimidating opponents despite not being completely fit.” On Valdés, he said, “he’s a keeper that works diligently on his concentration and I have a feeling that he could have saved Pastore’s shot if it hadn’t deflected off Alves first.”
