{"id":18013,"date":"2026-05-06T14:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T14:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/18013\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T14:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T14:46:11","slug":"barcelona-defender-highlights-the-key-to-beating-real-madrid-in-el-clasico-need-to-be-at-peak-focus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/18013\/","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona defender highlights the key to beating Real Madrid in El Clasico – ‘Need to be at peak focus’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barcelona are on the verge of clinching the La Liga title, and Sunday\u2019s El Clasico at the Spotify Camp Nou<\/a> presents them with the perfect opportunity to do it in the most spectacular fashion possible.<\/p>\n

But with nothing left to play for except pride, the Real Madrid team will be determined to produce a strong response at Camp Nou and will be aggressive from the start.<\/p>\n

Jules Kounde is one of the players who will be tasked with keeping Real Madrid\u2019s attack quiet, and the French defender has been speaking ahead of the highly anticipated fixture.<\/p>\n

Kounde on pressure and the Clasico<\/p>\n

Kounde talked about the preparations that go into the El Clasico and focus becomes important in such a key fixture. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like living without pressure. I take on responsibility naturally, as it\u2019s part of a professional athlete\u2019s life. I handle pressure well, as it\u2019s part of our job, and I love the feeling of it,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

On the mood inside the Barcelona camp, he sounded quite positive, stating that the team is determined to win the league.<\/p>\n

\"JulesKounde is fully focused for the Clasico. (Photo by Judit Cartiel\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team is in a state of great focus. We have a strong desire to win the league. A draw would be enough for us to achieve it, but we want to beat Real Madrid,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

On stopping Real Madrid\u2019s attack<\/p>\n

When asked about the key to winning the Clasico, Kounde pointed to a collective effort rather than individual defending. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe key to winning El Clasico will be good pressing from the entire team, not just defence. We need to be at peak focus,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the key highlight of the interview was when Kounde was asked which attacker had caused him the most problems throughout his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cVinicius. I suffered a lot against Leao as well. And even Lamine in training puts a huge effort on me,\u201d he admitted.<\/p>\n

Kounde is likely to take on Vinicius Jr. once again at Camp Nou this weekend. <\/p>\n

Source: Bar\u00e7aTV+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barcelona are on the verge of clinching the La Liga title, and Sunday\u2019s El Clasico at the Spotify…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[92,222,1593,223,548,82,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-18013","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-madrid","8":"tag-barcelona","9":"tag-barcelona-news","10":"tag-el-clasico","11":"tag-fc-barcelona","12":"tag-jules-kounde","13":"tag-madrid","14":"tag-real-madrid"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}