Although Xavi Hernandez, the manager of Barcelona, acknowledged his respect for Jude Bellingham, the midfielder for Real Madrid, he emphasized that his team will not be concentrating on just one player in Sunday’s Spanish Super Cup final.
With 17 goals in 22 games this season, Bellingham was the MVP of the most recent El Clasico in October, helping Madrid win 2-1 at the Montjuic.
Ahead of Sunday’s SuperCopa Clasico final, Xavi stated that while Bellingham is a fantastic player, Madrid has a lot of other outstanding players to be concerned about.
“We do not focus on one player in Real Madrid because they have many excellent players, led by Jude Bellingham, who is performing at a great level,” Xavi stated at the pre-final press conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Xavi said that while it’s difficult to forecast a Clasico, there won’t be any doubts over Barcelona’s “hunger” going into the match.
“The result of an El Clasico match this intense cannot be predicted; it will be decided on the field,” he declared. “We played really well last year, and we will compete for the cup that we won. We will give it our all to win the title, but playing Real Madrid is always a tough encounter.
We will however demonstrate to our opponents that we are hungry and eager to win.
Real Madrid vs. Barcelona will begin at 8 p.m. CET, and Managing Madrid will have a lot of written and podcast coverage.