Kurban Berdyev
Rubin Kazan
Beat Barcelona 2-1 on 20 October 2009
"I studied all Barcelona's games in the Spanish championship. The game against Valencia [a 0-0 draw] was the most helpful to understand them. I noticed that Xavi and Andrés Iniesta – key players in the team – almost never drop back to their own penalty box. This style of play in the midfield creates free space for shots from the middle range. Our midfielders were told to shoot on sight. It's also good to have a player in this area who constantly tries to hold the build-up of Barcelona's attack in the centre of the midfield. It was Alejandro Domínguez who was playing this role, always dropping from the forward's position to confront Yaya Touré. And Domínguez did a great job. I don't think we could have beaten Barça without him. Barcelona like to use the whole pitch. Their full-backs, Dani Alves and Eric Abidal, tend to play wide and leave some space in the centre. We were ready to organise our counter-attack through that area, so we waited for the right opportunity. That's how the second goal came in.
Quique Sánchez Flores
Atlético Madrid
Beat Barcelona 2-1 on 14 February 2010
"We had to try to keep our shape short and narrow to make it hard for Barcelona to find players between the lines, which is what they do so well and what most causes you trouble. We had to ensure there were not gaps there for them to exploit, in among us. We did that very well, we were focused and very intense, very effective. It's genuinely hard to minimise Barcelona's qualities because they are such a great team. But we did so and we even had moments where we were able to play some quite nice football although in the second half we lost control of the ball a bit, and in truth that wasn't the key to our approach. When we got the ball we were reasonably direct. Stopping Barcelona is really hard – they have good players and they are neat with the ball, so we were very pleased with what we were doing. José Reyes played very well, running at them constantly. The key though was to get it right collectively and deny them any room."
Manolo Jiménez
Sevilla (until 24 March)
Beat Barcelona 2-1 on 5 January 2010
"The key idea we had was to pile the pressure on their defenders and not allow them to bring the ball out of the back. We wanted to make sure that they didn't get the ball to their playmakers – we tried to stop him receiving and playing. We played with great intensity and really went for them. We were close together in the middle but quick to get the ball wide when we attacked. You can never relax against Barcelona because they are the best side in the world. We showed courage, competitiveness and quality. You have to work very hard and not give up a single ball for lost. We conceded one goal because of a lapse of concentration but we were able to overcome that fortunately."
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