Iniesta: “Madrid will demand a perfect game”

Barça’s Spanish international midfielder is clear that the team will go out and try to win against Madrid on Wednesday and certainly not attempt to sit on their 1-2 result from the first leg.

Iniesta also promised that the team would keep on fighting till the end in the league to try and reduce the distance between them and Madrid.

Despite the result in Bernabéu (1-2), Andrés Iniesta made it clear that the team will have to give their all on Wednesday if they want to make it through to the semi final and that Madrid will force Barça to put in "a perfect game - we can't afford any relaxation. Iniesta added: "the only thing I want is that the team put in a good performance. We'll have our fans to support us, but although we've got a good result from the first leg, that doesn't mean anything, this is football and there is 90 minutes more of a great game between two big teams".

Asked as to what tactics he thought Real Madrid would be adopting, Iniesta was adamant that the only thing Barça needed to concern themselves with was: "how we play - really the only thing we should be worried about is how we do and that we are able to control their strong points. We'll go out to win, if we were to just try and hold on for a draw, be afraid of losing, we would have a lot of problems because Madrid will come here to win and they have the players who can do that".

Turning to the league, Iniesta explained how important the win in Malaga was as the team fight to retain their league title: "if you want to win the league you have to have a great away record, particularly with the team we are going head to head with. We needed that win and in general we controlled the game and were really efficient. I hope that we'll continue improving as the season goes on, because we are full of confidence about our chances of holding on to the title".

Iniesta is also aware that there's not much room for error in the league: "we know that Madrid won't slip up much and we have to get points back on them. Regardless of whether they lose or not, we can't slip up. We have to start taking maximum points from every game, so that we can close the gap. There's five points between us, but we think we can get back".

Iniesta also praised Víctor Valdés, who he reckons has been: "the top keeper for a while now, he's been performing year after year" and Leo Messi: "his peak is still ahead of him fortunately for him, for us and for Barça as a whole. He's performing incredibly in every game. The hardest thing in football is to be the player who makes the difference, but he just does it naturally. It's hard to think of any more superlatives for him".

Finally, Iniesta explained that the challenge for the team was "that we keep on improving every season. I get the feeling that the team have to get better and outdo themselves every season. What's more, Madrid are forcing us to better ourselves all the time. That is what will allow us to continue to be in there fighting for all the titles till the end of the season". (via FCBarcelona.cat)