Barcelona can cope with Lewandowski’s absence, says Granada manager: “They are far superior”

As Barcelona gear up to take on Granada in La Liga on Sunday, the relegation-battling club’s manager, Paco Lopez, has claimed that the reigning champions have enough quality in the squad to cope with the absence of Robert Lewandowski.

The 35-year-old superstar striker injured his ankle during the match against FC Porto earlier this week and is set for a month out on the sidelines.

As such, Lewandowski is now set to miss a string of matches for Barcelona, starting with Sunday night’s contest against Granada away at Los Carmenes.

Given that the Pole is the Blaugrana’s leading goalscorer this season, his absence will be a blow for Xavi Hernandez & co.

However, Granada boss Paco Lopez believes that Barcelona will be just fine despite the absence of their ace goalscorer.

“It doesn’t matter in the Barça squad. If Lewandowski is not here, Ferran, who is a Spain international, is here. There’s Balde, Joao Félix, Oriol Romeu, Gavi, Íñigo Martínez if he plays, Christensen, Cancelo…,” Lopez said, as quoted by AS.

“It doesn’t matter, they have great potential and in theory, they are far superior. What we have to try to do is minimise all that and think, above all, I insist, about playing a great game without the ball.”

Paco Lopez has previously tasted success against Barcelona, having defeated the Catalans thrice when he was in charge of Levante. However, he stated that the historical records do not matter heading into Sunday’s clash, as he said:

“If situations change a lot from one matchday to the next, imagine from one season to the next, and the characteristics of players, contexts, and so on.

“The fact that we have had some success against these teams in the past with our respective teams is anecdotal, because we are in a new season, in a different situation.”

Hammering home the point that defeating a team of Barça’s quality and stature will be very hard, the Granada head coach remarked: “What is clear, whatever the season, is that teams of our profile beating teams like Barça are very difficult situations.

On what it will take for his team to get the better of Barcelona on Sunday, Paco Lopez said:

“If we have the slightest chance of winning, we have to be a team that leaves our souls without the ball, because I don’t see us in a game in which we dominate, but quite the opposite. What Barça usually do against all their opponents is to be very dominant.”

“We’re going to spend a lot of minutes, practically the whole game, without the ball. We have to be very demanding, we have to give our all, be a very organised and intense team. From there, we have to grow if we want to have a chance of beating a team like Barcelona.”