Wilshere on how to beat Barca
Midfielder Jack Wilshere has offered some guidance to champions Manchester United on how to beat Spanish champions Barcelona on Saturday.
The Englishman was part of the Arsenal team that won 2-1 at the Emirates against the Catalan giants, so has some insight into how to play against what is arguably the best side in football history.
Wilshere said: "Three passes - bang, bang, bang - and they are through. You have to get in their faces. I have said it before: you really have to hold your shape.
"United will be good because they have the players like Fletcher who will get after Barça. You have to stop players like Xavi, [Lionel] Messi and [Andres] Iniesta or they will kill you.
"United have a better chance than we have. They have players like [Darren] Fletcher, Park [Ji-sung], [Antonio] Valencia.
"They are all runners and they can stop players. I would play Fletcher, just doing what he normally does - running everywhere - and then [Michael] Carrick and [Ryan] Giggs.
"[In attack] we played with just Robin van Persie and [in United's case] I would play with just [Wayne] Rooney, with Valencia and Park helping when they get the chance to get forward. For most of it they will be defending because that is what Barcelona do to you.
"If you can get in their faces they seem to ease off in the second half. We did that in the second half [of the first leg]. I don't think they get tired but [something changes] and you really have to go for them.
"We beat them at home. Obviously the away leg was a different game. After we went down to 10 men we had no chance.
"A couple of days before the game we worked on our shape defensively and worked out what we were going to do when we didn't have the ball.
"When we had the ball, the idea was to keep it, and when we didn't, the idea was to get around them with three men and press them quite high. They like to play it and if you can nick it in their half you've more of a chance."
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