Charles Jackson
Barcelona advance Roberto Lewandowski is minimizing the intimidation factor that Real Madrid should bring next season with the arrival of Kylian Mbappe, who many predict will widen the gap between the long-time rivals.
“Scared? No,” Lewandowski said in a recent interview, by ESPN. “Of course, Mbappe is an incredible player and if he joins Real Madrid, the team, the players will be very strong. But our mentality will be: it doesn’t matter how good players they are. working together, with the mindset that we can beat them, we can compete with them.”
Mbappé would reinforce a Real Madrid team that already has bragging rights in the rivalry. Carlo Ancelotti’s side won La Liga with weeks to go this season and currently hold a 12-point lead over Barcelona with one more game to play. Real Madrid also beat Barcelona in both editions of El Clasico this season and will play in the UEFA Champions League final on June 1, while Xavi’s team were eliminated in the quarter-finals by Mbappé’s Paris Saint-Germain.
Despite Real Madrid’s dominance, Lewandowski believes Barcelona still have a chance in the race for next season’s title.
“We have to be ready from the first game, from the first minute,” he said. “Because Real Madrid will definitely have a moment when they don’t play well, they lose points, and we have to be prepared for that, not only to catch up with them, but perhaps to get ahead of them. In the previous season, there were always some games that we couldn’t win, but we didn’t lose.”
The Polish international also feels that the increased competition will only help improve his game.
“It’s a winning group,” he said of the Real Madrid squad, which includes great talents like Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham. “No player is a threat to any other. The best club in the world always has to look for the best in each position, always. Being alongside great players will only help me improve, reach a higher level and win more trophies .”
Lewandowski took a more optimistic view than coach Xavi last week, who warned Barcelona fans that it would be difficult to compete with Real Madrid given the clubs’ different economic circumstances. Although Real Madrid’s finances appear stronger than ever, Barcelona have struggled to comply with La Liga’s spending rules for several years and have been unable to sign high-profile players at the same rate as their rivals.
“We will try to compete,” said Xavi last week, by ESPN. “The situation is financially difficult. It has nothing to do with what happened 25 years ago, when the coach arrived and said ‘I like this player, this one and this one’. It doesn’t work like that anymore. Fans need to understand the situation. As a coach, I understand what is happening and that is how we will manage things. At the moment, we are not in the same conditions as other clubs. to improve [financial] fair play, that is the reality. Fans should know. But that doesn’t mean we won’t try to achieve our goals.”
These quotes would have put Xavi in the spotlight, with club president Joan Laporta unhappy with his “realistic” outlook, by Guillem Balague. Barcelona are now considering whether or not to sack Xavi, a month after convincing him to reverse his decision to leave at the end of the season.
