The Fans Football Blog3

Barcelona player Alexander Hleb gave an interview to Catalan sports paper Sport.


(you can read the first part of this interview here)


Santander player Pinillos gave you a though welcome to the Spanish league. How did you feel about that injury?
Sometimes football in Spain is played too dirty. In England, they play hard, but fair. They go for the ball. In Spain, you have defenders who are always looking for your knee or your ankles. That's one of the things that surprised me most about Spanish football. Those tackles from behind just aren't acceptable. I wasn't expecting this.

The fans are surprised about the great stat of the season. You are too?
Not at all. This is Barcelona and we play how it is understood Barcelona should play. Barça is Barça, please. You don't have to lower the standard. The way we're playing right now is the minimum people can ask from us. This squad is made to win everything and technically the team is very good. We're going to come out there trying to win every game. What is happening seems very normal to me.

How does it feel to sit on the bench?
I'm not used to it, but it's normal. Partly because I have been injured and on the other hand because I cannot arrive here and say to the coach "Hey you, you have to play me and put the others on the bench because I'm great". All players are great here.

What do you think about the level of the Spanish league?
Well, if you see we're winning every game with 5-0, it could seem as if the level is quite low, but Atlético Madrid, against whom we scored six times, played very good against Liverpool, Villareal is going head-to-head with Manchester United and Madrid is a great team.

Cesc has said that he feels an oldie at Arsenal and that he misses you...
Arsenal has a fantastic team, although I understand what he's saying. I also miss him a lot because he was my best friend, both on the pitch, where we understood each other very good, as off the pitch. Together with Barcelona, Arsenal plays the best football.

If they don't win anything this season, Cesc maybe will get tired of losing and he could come to Barça...
Are you sure?

I'm not. Are you?
No. I'm talking a lot with Cesc, but not about this. He has a good contract and I don't think they want to sell him.

You are recognizing the Henry you played with at Arsenal?
Of course! He's a great guy, a good person and on the pitch he's as direct and straight as in his personal life.


This was the second and last part of this interview.

You can read the first part here:
Hleb (1): "I still need some more time to adapt"