Luis Enrique has confirmed that Neymar has overcome any injury concerns and will start for Barcelona in Saturday’s crunch clash with Atletico Madrid – and joked he would be “killed” if he left the Brazilian ace on the bench.
Neymar, who has scored 21 goals in 26 club appearances this season, finished his team’s Copa del Rey victory over Athletic Bilbao on Wednesday night badly hobbling, prompting speculation that he may miss today’s top of the table meeting at the Nou Camp.
But upbeat Enrique, who also revealed that full-back Jordi Alba has recovered from injury, smiled: “Neymar had a bang on the foot, but he’s fine and he will play. It won’t be a risk to play him. It would be a risk not to play him – they’d kill me.”
Enrique also restated his confidence that Neymar, whose first goal of the season came against Atletico with a brilliant free-kick in September’s 2-1 victory at the Vicente Calderon, will soon put pen to paper on a new contract.
The Brazilian has been linked with far-fetched moves to Manchester United and Real Madrid and this week hinted he would one day like to play under Pep Guardiola, but Enrique added: “When he signs, you can remind me whether I was right when I said that he would sign.”
Saturday’s game is probably the most important in the remainder of the La Liga season as the current joint leaders meet. Barca have a game in hand due to their involvement in December’s Club World Cup, and hold another major advantage over Atletico after their September meeting – crucial in a league where teams level on points are split by their head to head results rather than goal difference.
The prospect of moving three points clear with a game in hand is clearly an extremely enticing one for Barca, but Enrique attempted to play down the significance of the fixture as he claimed: “The game is important but not decisive. Whatever happens, it will still be tight at the top and there are still many games remaining.”
Although the finest day in Atletico’s recent history took place at the Nou Camp when they clinched the league title on the final day of the 2013-14 campaign, Barca have held the upper hand since then with Enrique having won all five of his meetings with Diego Simeone.
Enrique said: “They were only good results for us because we played well. Atletico are a tough team and we’ll need to forget about whatever results we’ve had against them in the past. We’ll have to play a complete game from the first minute to the 95th.”
Simeone is under no illusions about his team’s chief priority as they attempt to contain a strike force of Neymar, Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez which has already combined for 45 league goals.
“They are three players of an exceptionally high level,” said the Atletico chief. “They also show a remarkable amount of generosity towards each other, which is rare to see.”
At the other end of the field, Simeone’s strike force has been less than convincing with the exception of Antoine Griezmann’s 12 league goals. No other Atletico player has managed more than three, Jackson Martinez a particular disappointment since signing from Porto.
Simeone added: “We have plenty of options in attack. Being a forward is very demanding, especially in big games. Hopefully we’ll see them perform in this one.”
Midfielder Gabi also hopes Los Rojiblancos can recover from their cup exit to Celta Vigo on Wednesday. The captain said: “The team are hurting. But the important thing is to get back up and we have a big match against a great rival.”
Meanwhile, Barcelona will meet Valencia in the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey, with Sevilla taking on Celta Vigo in the other last-four tie. The first legs will be played on February 3 and 4 at the Nou Camp and Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan, with the return meetings a week later.
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