Busquets not giving up on Super Cup

Barcelona’s midfield man Sergio Busquets has said that the team are not giving up on the Spanish Super Cup even after the first leg 3-1 defeat to Real Madrid at the Camp Nou.

Barcelona have a knack for coming back to overturn results in recent years when needed. In 2013 Barcelona overturned a 2-0 first leg defeat to AC Milan in the Champions League by winning 4-0 at the Camp Nou.

Then a vigilant but somewhat lucky Barcelona pressurized Paris Saint-Germain into submission to overturn a 4-0 first leg defeat at Paris last season. Barca won the second leg at Camp Nou 6-1 in one of the greatest comebacks in football fistory.

However, this time the equation is firmly against Barcelona. Not only is the second leg away from home, it’s at the Santiago Bernabeu against a resurgent Real Madrid – current Spanish and European Champions.

"We know it’ll be hard to win the trophy but we haven’t given up; the game will help us grow as a team,” said Busquets.

He also added that the team would need to be ‘very good defensively’ in order to have any chance of overturning the lead.

Madrid are potentially the most dangerous side in Europe and have developed the idea to kill games through midfield domination.

“It’s vital we don’t concede: it’s not easy to score three in the Bernabéu but we’ve done it before. We’ll try to be solid and compact and take control of the tie although we know it will be difficult,” the midfielder added.

Barcelona however have fond memories of their most recent victory at the Bernabeu when an unparalleled Lionel Messi took the match by the scruff of the neck and delivered an unforgettable 3-2 victory.

Busquets also reiterated that the team needs to be refreshed every year and suggests that improvements are needed all over the pitch.

He clarified that those improvements need to come in the form new signings.

He said that the team has lost a lot with the departure of Neymar and that Barca need only the highest quality signings.

While new signing Paulinho offers help with depth – he perhaps does not belong to the ‘highest quality’ spectrum.

Busquets may just have been hinting at the Barcelona board to get their act together.

Barcelona will be without injured captain Andres Iniesta for the second leg which makes their difficult job almost impossible.