The manager of Real Betis Balompié gave a press conference before travelling to face FC Barcelona, last match of the year. Pepe Mel weighed the options of the team to obtain a good result in one of the most difficult stadiums in Liga BBVA.

Difficulties to win at Camp Nou: “We know we are playing against the best team in the world. It’s not a point of view, the results say it so. However, we are going with the idea that if we play with attitude and tension, we’ll have chances. If we perform as we did in Santiago Bernabéu, though, we’ll have a hard time. We hope we can play like in the first scenario and make it very difficult for them because it’s been a long time since they lost at home.”

Real Betis has traditionally performed well in Camp Nou: “We believe, as many other teams think too, that the best way to make them suffer is to force them to defend. If not, the 90 minutes feel very long. We are going to try to make them worry about defence. That doesn’t mean we are going to make it, there is only one ball and they always try to have it. We have our weapons, too, and we’ll try to use them.”

How can a team beat FC Barcelona?: “When FC Barcelona plays they always keep ball control. It would be good if we have possession as well. It’s a difficult mission but we have planned a match in which the players to help each other and with the lines very close together so they won’t find the spaces they need to play easy football. They pass and pass the ball until they find a hole. Then we have to be intense and together as we did in other fixtures.”

Will you play Rubén Castro or with two strikers?: “We’ll see tomorrow. We have a very hard month of January, and the match on Sunday is very important, too. We’ll be thinking about that game as well, but it doesn’t mean we won’t be focused on this match. We need to win as many points as we can. We know is a difficult venture because not many people make it but we have to try.”

Two matches during the week: “One of the most important matches in January is the next one at home. We are going to give everything in the next games, but our ambition needs to be to fight for every point in La Liga. We are going to Barcelona with one point, and we’ll try to come back with, at least, the same.”

Are you already thinking about the derby on the 6th of January: “It’s just around the corner but we have two matches before that one. It’s true that your plans change when you have such a tight schedule. I understand that the fans think a lot about that game, so we’ll try to make them think about the match on Sunday because it’s very important.”

You spoke in an interview about leaving: “It’s not exactly that. A colleague of yours asked me about the future. When you are a football manager, there’s no more future but the near one. A thousand things can happen in football. Who would have told me that I will return to Betis one year after I was sacked? I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. With the month of January we have in front, how am I going to think about July? I’m focused on Real Betis, on doing the best we can, make Betis fans proud and staying in La Liga."

You have contract for a year more after this one: “I also had it two years ago. My heart and will are with Real Betis; I want to stay in Real Betis. In the Club they are happy with the technical staff. What you saw on the cover of Estadio Deportivo is one answer in a two hour conversation. I meant that thinking beyond the near future is useless for a football manager. Maybe I shouldn’t have said that, it was just a thought about things that may or may not happen in July, but nothing else.”

New players in the winter transfer market: “The ones who talk in the Club about this, Eduardo Macià, Alexis, Roberto Ríos and me, we all have the same opinion. A winter signing is because he is going to play. It would be pointless to bring a player and enlarge the already big list of players we have. That’s why it isn’t easy. We are looking for the market options that Real Betis has.”