Brest manager Eric Roy explains why his side face more difficult Barcelona clash | OneFootball

Brest manager Eric Roy has warned his players that they must be be on high alert for a wounded beast when they face Barcelona on Tuesday night at Montjuic. The French side will take on Hansi Flick’s outfit coming off the back of just one point from their last two games, and poor performances in both.

The Breton side are the surprise package so far in the league phase, with 10 points from available so far. It’s something Roy will try to use to their advantage.

“We are the surprise of the Champions League. We are now on the map. That is something to be proud of. In France, nobody was betting on us. We have silenced the critics. We have ten points. That takes a lot of pressure off us. We are facing a great challenge. It is the sort of thing that makes us pinch ourselves. I have told the players that we have to keep believing in ourselves.”

“We hope to continue showing what we can do against Barcelona. We are going to face the European ogre and now he is injured. We are going to need a lot of resilience, but whatever happens, we will come out on top. We are not coming as if we were friends playing a game. We have nothing to lose.”

He noted that if they sat back too much, it would do them more harm than good.

“We want to cause issues and put on a show. If we have the ball 20% of the time, it will be difficult to express ourselves. We don’t want to be a reactive team. Maybe Barca forces us to, but our will is to create problems for them.”

Roy did point to Celta Vigo and Real Sociedad as blueprints for how to combat the Blaugrana recipe which until this month had looked more or less unstoppable.

“We have looked at the Celta and Real Sociedad matches,” Roy explained to Diario AS, before addressing Barcelona’s now notorious high line.

“They play very close together when pressing. They want to win the ball back very quickly. We know how they play. But then you have to be very precise with your passes. They are very vertical and attack in depth. If we are not able to anticipate that, we will have problems.”

Roy also said that his side had won the tactical battle already, but that the game was not played there. Certainly they are going into the match with little to lose and everything to gain. Barcelona are a point behind Brest, and will be seeking to firm up their place in the top eight, and thus qualify for the Round of 16.