Vincent Kompany hails Barcelona gem as one of world football’s ‘defensive leaders’ | OneFootball

A huge night arrives up ahead for FC Barcelona as they return to the UEFA Champions League for their next challenge. This time around, however, the level of the opposition that they will be facing is as high as it gets. Against Bayern Munich, Barcelona will get a chance to rekindle all sorts of former encounters.

Unfortunately, in Bayern’s case, Barça do not exactly have the most promising of recent records. Regardless of that, Hansi Flick’s arrival has changed a lot of things at the Catalan club and it has shaken them up in a positive way. However, they must now prove that against a top tier opponent.

Ahead of the game, however, Bayern Munich coach Vincent Kompany was asked a few questions. As highlighted by SPORT, one of those questions included asking Kompany about his opinion on Barcelona wonderkid Pau Cubarsi, a player who plays in the same position that Kompany himself used to occupy in his playing days, and he thinks of the youngster as one of world football’s ‘defensive leaders’:

“This is an easy answer. Cubarsí will be one of the defensive leaders in world football. I also started my career very young, but not at the level Cubarsí is currently at. Pau is an impressive player.”

Such massive words of praise from a former Manchester City icon will surely be received quite positively by the 17-year-old Barcelona defender. Despite hailing from La Masia as an academy product, he has already built up his reputation as one of Europe’s finest young talents.

With Kompany’s words now backing up that observation, Cubarsi’s next challenge will be to thwart the Belgian manager’s dangerous Bayern Munich side’s attacks. Alongside Barcelona, the Bavarians have been one of Europe’s biggest offensive threats, and La Blaugrana will need to contain them.

Both Barcelona and Bayern Munich share a storied history together, but now is the time to focus on the present and let go of the past for now. To do that and prevail over the Bundesliga giants, La Blaugrana will need to be attentive to every single detail and Hansi Flick’s game plan will need to be spot-on.