Barcelona and Brøndby eye historic marks
Monday, October 14, 2013
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FC Barcelona coach Xavi Llorens challenged his team to score a first European goal when they visit Brøndby IF with the tie 0-0, the home side hoping for a record crowd.
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FC Barcelona coach Xavi Llorens has challenged his players to write a fresh chapter in the club's history by scoring their first-ever goal in the UEFA Women's Champions League – and then qualifying for the round of 16.
The Spanish title holders made their tournament debut in last season's round of 32, losing 7-0 on aggregate to Arsenal LFC of England. However, they can travel to Denmark to face Brøndby IF on Wednesday with confidence after creating plenty of chances in the 0-0 first-leg draw at the Mini Estadi, being denied time and again by goalkeeper Jenny Olsson.
Llorens believes his team are stronger than last year, and should finally be able to put the ball in the net when the action resumes in Brondby. "I would be happy, first of all, with a goal and then with a victory," he told UEFA.com. "Let's see if we are capable of scoring goals.
"A 2-2 draw would be enough to qualify for the next round and that would represent a victory. If you count friendlies and these official matches against top-level teams, the team have come on. We are more competitive in Europe.
"At times in the first leg, we played too vertical and should have looked for variations a little more, in terms of long balls and passes inside. The players were too rushed. I hope we resolve everything in our favour within the 90 minutes."
Meanwhile, his opposite number Peer Lisdorff wants Brøndby to make history of their own by attracting a record attendance for the return. With the two-time semi-finalists having lost in the round of 32 last season, Lisdorff is determined to lead the Danish champions back to the last eight, where in 2012 they drew their highest crowd of 3,644 (despite going down 4-0 in both legs to Olympique Lyonnais).
"We set ourselves a goal this summer, saying we would try to get to the quarter-finals again," said Lisdorff, whose side would play AC Sparta Praha or FC Zürich Frauen in the last 16. "Barcelona are a special club and they are very popular in Denmark, so I hope there will be a lot of people watching the game. Maybe we can beat the record from when we played Lyon – when we had almost 4,000. We hope there can be as many again."
