FCBARCELONA.CAT

24.07.2008 15:13

Alves’ diary (III)

www.fcbarcelona.cat

Before playing at Murrayfield, Dani Alves tells us how he’s feeling on the verge of possibly making his debut in the Barça colours.

"Hello everybody,

I’m writing my diary just a few hours before I make my debut for Barça. I am looking forward to the moment because since I’ve been here my main objective has been to be able to play, compete and pick up form as each day goes by. The most important thing is to get ready for official competition, which in our case will be mid August and the Champions League qualifiers.

Seydou Keita, Samuel Eto'o and me came a few days later and haven’t trained as much as our colleagues, so we might not get as many minutes, but I think I am ready for 45 minutes. Whatever happens, we also have to consider whatever minutes we get as if it were another training session.

The first game of the preseason will be at Murrayfield, a stadium that is usually used by the Scottish rugby team and they have told me its really nice. I have never played there, but I do know other Scottish stadiums. In the 2003-04 season with Sevilla, we played in Glasgow Celtic’s farewell match for Henrik Larsson before he came to Barça. My other game on Scottish soil was at Hampden Park, in the 2006-07 season, the final of the UEFA Cup, when we beat Espanyol.

Apart from the game with Celtic, I have never played a Scottish team, but I know what kind of game they’ll play. I expect Hibernian to play with a lot of contact, physical play and balls in the air. I think it is important to start the preseason against strong teams, who can cause us problems, because that is the best way of learning what errors we are likely to commit. Playing against weak sides is misleading because you don’t notice what you are doing wrong.

In the training sessions, and especially our last one, we have worked a lot on strategy plays. I think that is an important thing to do because at the end of the season, strategies like that can gain several points. And I should know that, because at Sevilla last season we conceded far too many goals from set pieces!

On Friday I’ll explain how I feel after making my debut for Barça.

See you tomorrow!"