Deco: "You should be on top from the first minute"

Former Barcelona player Deco gave an interview to Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo.





You will watch the clasico?
Of course, I wouldn't want to miss this game. Chelsea is only playing on Sunday, against West Ham, so I have prepared everyting to enjoy the game.

You remember the last clasico?
How could I forget that one, with everyting that has been said and written about it! I didn't play because of a suspension, there was the tribute to the champions and the defeat. Those games and those results have an impact on you and hurt because of the historical rivalry between the teams and the fans.

This year a football revenge is needed.
Yes, but before thinking about scoring many goals like some people in the entourage have been doing, the first thing Barcelona has to do is win the game and put Real Madrid at twelve points. That will hurt enough, that will make the crisis in Madrid even bigger. Everybody should be aware that winning the Liga is the important thing, more than scoring a lot of goals tonight. If the two things are possible, the better, but it shouldn't be an obsession.

But you always said it's beter to score five than four gaols against Madrid.
Yes, undoubtedly, but the team has to go out there and play like they have been doing so far this season, which is brilliant. Without an obsession to score five goals in fifteen minutes. If they play at their level, no one should doubt that Barcelona will defeat Madrid clearly. They should come out with an extra pressure, they just have to play like they have done until now. The objective is to win.

But when Barcelona won 0-3 at the Bernabeu, you were angry in the dressingroom because you didn't score five...
It's a different thing. If you have the game in your hand, if you create more chances, you shouldn't hold back, and if you can score half a dozen of goals against Real Madrid, that will go in the history books. You have to think that they sure would do it, if they had the chance. The year of the 0-3 we let them escape alive, they were wounded and we were trying to do things too nice.

What do you think about Madrid?
They're going through problems that remind me ours. Well, I'm referring to Barça during the last two years, when I was part of the team. There are a lot of things coming together and it's not only about sporting problems. Everything that happens around the club has an impact on the pitch. But I'm in the world of football for many years now and it's not a good thing to be overconfident or underestimate a team like Madrid. A clasico is always a very open game and you have to be on top from the first minute, very concentrated, totally focused on the game. Any distraction or lowering of the pressure could have bad consequences. I like to hear Guardiola and how he is setting a line so that nobody loses focus or is overconfident.


This was the second and last part of this interview. You can read the first part here:

Deco: "Every 20 years you have a player like Leo"