Spain teammate gives keys to stopping Barcelona sensation Lamine Yamal | OneFootball

This weekend, Barcelona host Valencia in their latest La Liga fixture, and Lamine Yamal is bound to be one of their references as they look to snap their “dreadful form” in the league. The man that will be tasked with stopping him at the Estadi Olimpic is someone that the 17-year-old sensation knows well: Jose Gaya.

Lamine Yamal and Gaya have been international teammates over the last 16 months, and the latter recounted his first impression of the teenager when speaking to the media on Thursday, as per Relevo.

“I remember seeing him with the national team at the age of 16 and I was amazed. I said that he was going to be a player who was going to mark an era and I think he is going to be. If he’s not the best in the world, but I’m sure he’s one of the best.”

Jose Gaya, Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams on Spain duty (Photo by Fran Santiago/Getty Images)

Gaya will have his work cut out to stop Lamine Yamal, although he has confidence in his ability to do. He also believes that he knows exactly how to nullify the threat of the world class Barcelona winger.

“Normally, we always have the option of being able to watch individual videos of the opponents you can face, but I have seen Lamine quite a lot, and he is difficult to defend. You don’t know what is better if you overtake him very quickly, if you leave him space, if you go very fast to defend, he has a lot of ability to come out on both sides, but if you go back and give him space, with driving he can take you into complicated situations.

“The key is to make him go back towards his own goal. This type of player enjoys running forward but when they have to run backwards, not so much.”

It will not be easy for Valencia to get a result this weekend, especially as they are missing key defender Cristhian Mosquera. However, if Gaya can keep Lamine Yamal quiet, that could go a long way to stopping Barcelona.