Tito: "Valencia are dangerous"

Press conference with Barca coach, Tito Vilanova, ahead of tomorrow's match vs. Valencia at Camp Nou.

"The squad has reacted well (Super Cup). We’re all aware that we’ve only just begun, that we have a very important home game and that we have to try and reach the break with nine points”.

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On Valencia

“It’s true that they’ve changed a few players but the majority are still there. It’s a team that poses a threat breaking quickly into space. Soldado is one example and he scores freely. They’re also very dangerous in dead ball situations”.

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“Alves trained as usual and felt fine”. Puyol trained for part of the session and tomorrow we’ll make a final decision about his availability”.

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On his suspension

"I believe that, for what I said to the assistant referee, in a polite way, they’ve set the bar very high and I hope they keep it there for the rest of the season. I accept the ban and I can only say that I hope they have the character to maintain this standard”.

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Champions League

“We haven’t looked at our rivals yet. Right now we’re focused on analysing the Real Madrid game and preparing the match against Valencia. I think there are no easy opponents or easy matches in Europe. On past occasions we’ve really suffered against relatively easy teams”.

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Villa back in Spanish NT

“He has to gradually play more and more. He’s made very good progress in the last few days. It’s good for his self-esteem that he’s been included in the national squad and it’ll be very important for us to get him back”.

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Iniesta and the European player of the Year award

"Any one of the three could have won - Iniesta, Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo. Andrés has been playing well for a long time. He deserves the award. He’s worked hard for a long time. It’s a source of pride for the Club that two out of the three best players in Europe belong to Barça. I’d like to congratulate all three of them."

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Atletico Madrid look more of a threat to me, but then again Valencia are great and play beautiful football.

Valencia probably won't play very nice football under Pellegrino, though their attack is far better than their defense so they might have no choice.

Valencia is still more balanced than Atletico, their midfield is far better, especially if Gago is healthy. The thing with Atleti is they have Falcao and their starting defense is very good, but they have no depth and their midfield is mediocre. Both us and Madrid should tear through Atleti, while Valencia can actually take away possession and operating room.

I rate Simeone far higher than Pellegrino though.

Both Valencia and At. Madrid are threats. I wouldn't underestimate either one of them.

This might be a really hard or really easy game for us won't be in between IMO

Barcafire said:

Both Valencia and At. Madrid are threats. I wouldn't underestimate either one of them.

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I couldn,t agree more with you. I see them both as threats that ought to be taken seriously. IMO the only advantage we have going Into tomorrow's game is camp nou.