Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde has expressed fears ahead of Tuesday’s Laliga clash against Villarreal, saying it is must win tie for the league defending champions.
The underfire tactician told a press conference: “In the world of football talk of crisis comes quickly. You enter into crisis every three days and you also come out of crisis in three days.
“Now we have two games this week and we want to pick up six points. That’s the only way everyone is much calmer.”
Villarreal will become the latest team to try emulate Real Betis’ feat from 10 months ago on Tuesday night and Valverde admits his side will need to have their wits about them against in-form Yellow Submarine.
He said: “Villarreal are a team who always make life complicated for us and who have started the season well, spurred on by last season’s difficulties.
“They have very fast players up front like Samu (Chukwueze) and (Karl Toko) Ekambi and very good players in the middle like (Santi) Cazorla.
“We have to continue along the same line as our two home games and forget about what happened the other day.”
Barca head into fixtures against Villarreal and Getafe having picked up just seven points from a possible 15 so far – their worst start to a season in 25 years.
Villarreal head up the east coast looking to continue their climb up the standings.
They are now seventh, one point and one place above Barcelona, after beating Leganes and Real Valladolid in their last two matches.
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