Real Oviedo midfielder confident fatigue won’t affect Barcelona: ‘They are used to playing every three days’ | OneFootball

Barcelona take on Real Oviedo on Sunday evening in what will be a top-of-the-table vs bottom-of-the-table clash in La Liga.

The Catalans, surprisingly, enter the game having lost their last fixture in the competition. With Real Madrid taking all three points against Villarreal, the game becomes a must-win.

On the night, however, Hansi Flick’s side will be without Pedri who suffered an injury against Slavia Prague and will thus be out for a month.

Oviedo player speaks

Barcelona beat Real Oviedo with a 3-1 scoreline earlier this season. (Photo by Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images)

Real Oviedo player Haissem Hassan spoke to Cadena SER ahead of the clash against Barcelona and began by responding to whether Barcelona’s fatigue from the UEFA Champions League will play a part on the night.

“If they play a bad game it will be because it was not their day or because we have complicated things, but not because of the physique. Barça players are used to playing every three days.”

The player was then asked if Pedri’s absence weakened the Catalans’ midfield and whether his team saw that to be a boost. To that, Hassan responded saying,

“It doesn’t matter much, Barça has an incredible squad. Pedri is one of the best players in the world. At the end of the game at the [Carlos] Tartiere he created a lot of problems for us.”

“Obviously, when you hear that a player like Pedri is on leave, you can think that it makes things easier for you. We don’t look much at that, because the one who plays in his position is a great player too,” he added.

Finally, he was asked what his team’s approach would be on the night and how they planned to take on Barcelona.

“I don’t know if there is a special plan that a team can do to beat Barça, because every team that plays against them tries a strategy and they almost always win every game.”

Elaborating how fearlessness is the most important factor and the best that a visiting team can do, he said,

“You don’t have to go with fear, you don’t have to try things we don’t know how to do. We will have to suffer and bring out the best version of ourselves and play at 200%.”

“We will try to do everything possible to cause problems and get points out of there,” he added.