Barcelona urged to be wary of Real Madrid

Barcelona officials have warned their side to be on guard on Saturday when they meet rivals Real Madrid, who are determined to win under new coach Juande Ramos following a string of poor results.

“It is an injured Real who will be coming here. We must be very careful and make sure that they do not use the match to relaunch themselves, as they have in other years,” said Barcelona president Joan Laporta.

“It seems that everyone expects us to win easily, it will not be easy… we have to keep our feet on the ground,” he added.

Barcelona are at the top of the Spanish league, nine points ahead of fourth-place Real, and were seen as the favourites to win the match until the reigning Spanish champions on Tuesday ousted their German coach Bernd Schuster and replaced him, effective immediately, with Ramos.

“With Schuster we knew more or less what they did, with the new coach there will be other things, it will be a very difficult match,” said Barcelona coach Josep Guardiola.

Guardiola said he has prepared for Saturday’s game by watching videos of matches where Ramos acted as coach, especially when he managed Sevilla.

Ramos has a reputation for making surprising tactical moves, such as his decision to leave keeper Iker Casillas on the bench during Real’s 3-0 win over Zenit St Petersburg in their final Champions League Group H game on Wednesday.

Barcelona midfielder Xavi Hernandez however remained upbeat over his side’s chances.

“Barcelona is clearly the favourite. We are going to win and extend our lead over them to 12 points,” he said.

Schuster has said last weekend that it was “not possible” to win against Barcelona but Ramos was decidedly more confident when he was unveiled as coach.

“Barcelona is playing really well but Madrid is playing well enough to not renounce a victory in any stadium in the world,” he said on Tuesday.

Ramos guided Tottenham to the League Cup last season but was sacked by the English side in October following the London club’s worst start to the season which left the team at the bottom of the Premier League.

But he enjoys a healthy reputation in Spain based on his successes with Sevilla which included two UEFA Cup wins in 2006 and 2007.