Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman hits out at ban forward of Atletico Madrid showdown
Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman has criticised the Spanish FA’s (RFEF) choice handy him a two-game ban for utilizing what was deemed to be derogatory language in direction of a match official.
The Dutchman was dismissed in final week’s shock 2-1 residence loss to Granada which hit Barca’s title hopes.Having missed Sunday’s 3-2 victory at Valencia, Koeman is ready to even be absent for the crunch La Liga showdown on the Camp Nou in opposition to leaders Atletico Madrid on Saturday after having an attraction to cut back the ban rejected by the RFEF.
Barcelona on Wednesday confirmed they might current a second attraction to Spain’s Sports Administrative Court in a bid to get the ban overturned.
“I feel it’s something personal, yes,” Koeman informed a information convention on Friday.
“To say ‘What a person’ is not insulting, and it’s not a reason to ban someone for two games. So yes, I believe it to be something deeper (than the words said).”
Barca sit two factors behind Atletico, who’ve 76 factors, and a victory would see them leapfrog their opponents with simply three video games left to play.Title rivals Real Madrid, who’re degree on factors with Barca and host fourth-placed Sevilla on Sunday, may very well be the principle beneficiaries if the sport ends in a draw resulting from their superior head-to-head report in opposition to Atleti and Barca.
However, very like his Atletico counterpart Diego Simeone, Koeman insisted Barcelona won’t alter their typical set-up for the sport.
“Barca are a side who look to attack and we need to stay loyal to that, to ourselves, and we won’t change,” mentioned Koeman. “We don’t count on them to depart a lot area for us once they don’t have the ball.
“This week hasn’t been any different to a normal week. You don’t need to do anything different because the players know how important the game is.”I’m satisfied that if we win our 4 remaining video games, we’ll win the title.”
Barca ahead Martin Braithwaite returns to the squad after injuring his ankle final month, that means solely long-term absentees Ansu Fati and Philippe Coutinho are unavailable.
