Barcelona assistant coach Marcus Sorg believes star forward Lamine will use backlash over his recent negative comments about Real Madrid as fuel to perform in Sunday’s El Clasico
Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal during a training session on the eve of their match against Real Madrid on Saturday. Pic/Getty Images
Barcelona star Lamine Yamal will be motivated by criticism ahead of ‘El Clasico,’ said the club’s assistant coach Marcus Sorg — standing in for the suspended Hansi Flick, who picked up a red card for his excessive celebrations following Barcelona’s late winner against Girona last week — on Saturday.
Teenage winger Yamal has been in the spotlight in the Spanish capital after joking that Real Madrid “steal” — a hint at refereeing decisions — and “complain” during an appearance on a social media stream. He received plenty of backlash from Los Blancos’s fans for his comments, with some reports even stating that the Real Madrid players took offence to his words.
Marcus Sorg
Nevertheless, Sorg believes any criticism is only bound to light a fire under the Spanish international. “Lamine is a top player and I think [the criticism] will only be motivating for him. I hope we see him give his best performance on Sunday,” Sorg said at the pre-match press conference on Saturday.
Yamal scored in both La Liga matches against Real Madrid last season. He also scored against them in last season’s Supercopa finals and provided two assists in the Copa del Rey final against Los Blancos. Barcelona have beaten Real Madrid in their last four encounters, having scored 16 goals in the process. However, they’ll be short of firepower this time around with injuries to Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha, Dani Olmo, and Gavi.
It opens the door for Madrid, who currently sit atop the league table (24 pts) — two points ahead of Barcelona — to exact revenge, which is something star forward Kylian Mbappe alluded to on Friday. “There’s no bigger game than this one on at club level. But we don’t just want to play it, we want to win it. We’re going to do what is demanded of Madrid, which is to win and play well for all the fans,” said the Frenchman. Mbappe has an impressive record against the Catalan giants, having netted 11 goals in eight games against them (across all competitions).
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