Rijkaard promises to attack
29 Apr 2008 - 09:29:49
Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard will send his team out to attack at Old Trafford as the Catalan giants bid to beat Manchester United and reach their second Champions League Final in three seasons.
The semi-final encounter is tied at 0-0 after the first leg in the Camp Nou six days ago, but Rijkaard is in an upbeat mood going into the game.
"We need to get a positive result," said the Dutchman. "We need to score a goal to make sure we go through.
"We have got to impose our own style of play, get hold of the ball, pass it around, keep possession and maybe not get involved in United's style of play too much.
"We need to fight hard to gain our objective which is to reach the final.
"We can talk as much as we want about tactics and we're preparing hard but, once the match starts, it's about how it develops.
"You've got to believe in yourself, fight hard, work hard, show our quality out on the field. That will give us a good chance."
Captain Carles Puyol is also placing the accent on attack, saying: "We have not travelled to Manchester with defensive ideas.
"We will not play like they did because we need to score. To play defensively for us would be a huge failure at Old Trafford.
"We will attack as we always do and players like Lionel Messi, Deco and Thierry Henry have all had time to rest in the last few days.
"Sincerely I was very disappointed with Manchester United's attitude in Barcelona. They played without any type of risk and obviously came for a 0-0 draw.
"With a team full of players like (Cristiano) Ronaldo, (Wayne) Rooney and (Carlos) Tevez we expected so much more, but maybe it was us who kept them quiet."