Brest coach Eric Roy explains why his side face a more difficult Barcelona clash

Brest manager Eric Roy has warned his players to be on high alert for an injured beast when they face Barcelona on Tuesday night at Montjuic. The French side will take on Hansi Flick’s outfit, who are coming off the back of just one point from their last two games, and poor performances in both.

The Bretons are the surprise package so far in the league stage with 10 points from available so far. This is something Roy will try to use to their advantage.

“We are the surprise of Champions League. We are now on the map. It is something to be proud of. In France, no one bet on us. We have silenced the critics. We have ten points. It takes a lot of pressure off us. We are facing a big challenge. It’s the kind of thing that makes us pinch ourselves. I have told the players that we have to keep believing in ourselves.”

“We hope to keep showing what we can do against Barcelona. We’re going to meet the European troll, and now he’s injured. We will need a lot of resilience but no matter what happens we will come out on top. We don’t come as if we were friends playing a game. We have nothing to lose.”

He noted that if they leaned back too much, it would do them more harm than good.

“We want to create problems and make a show. If we have the ball 20% of the time, it will be difficult to express ourselves. We don’t want to be a reactive team. Maybe Barca forces us to do that, but our will is to create problems for them.”

Roy pointed to Celta Vigo and Real Sociedad as blueprints for how to combat the Blaugrana recipe, which until this month had looked more or less unstoppable.

“We’ve been watching the Celta and Real Sociedad games,” Roy explained Diario ASbefore addressing Barcelona’s now infamous high line.

“They play very close together when they press. They want to win the ball back very quickly. We know how they play. But then you have to be very precise with your passes. They are very vertical and attack in depth. If we are not able to foresee it, we will have problems.”

Roy also said that his side had already won the tactical match but that the match was not played there. They certainly go into the game with little to lose and everything to gain. Barcelona are one point behind Brest and will try to maintain their place in the top eight and thus qualify for the Round of 16.