Barca's goalkeeper advises the whole team to practice meditation like Haaland

Speaking to the press, Barcelona's goalkeeper Szczesny shared significant remarks after the El Clasico loss. The ex-goalkeeper of Arsenal and Juventus believes Barca's players should seek methods to maintain mental and emotional ease rather than staying stuck in irritation and discomfort.

The El Clasico match last weekend at Santiago Bernabeu ended with a 2-1 victory for Real Madrid, ending Barcelona's four-match winning streak against their fierce rivals. After the game, tensions flared as players from both sides exchanged words and physical confrontations.

The cause was that before the match, Lamine Yamal had "sparked" hostility with controversial remarks. As a result, Real Madrid players, hurt in their pride and masculinity, played fairly and brilliantly to secure the three points.

This defeat brought heavy criticism upon Barcelona, yet Szczesny's outstanding performance was a rare bright spot on a day when star player Lamine Yamal underperformed. Despite conceding two goals in the first half, Szczesny made 9 crucial saves, including stopping a penalty from Mbappe.

After the match, Szczesny revealed that he chooses meditation and breathing exercises to control his emotions during stressful moments. He also suggested his Barca teammates try it out: “I realized early on that negative emotions don’t help me in football. So, I learned to detach myself from them. After El Clasico, everyone was arguing and getting angry.

The emotions were all very negative, but I just thought: ‘We lost, so we have to move on.’ I advise my teammates to try meditation like Haaland and practice proper breathing techniques to feel more at ease. I do it right in the dressing room, before and during the match, even if sometimes my teammates look at me strangely, but it works very well.”.

Not only known for his reflexes, Szczesny is also recognized for being meticulous in his pre-match preparations. As he explained, he always studies opponents' penalty-taking habits to find weaknesses and devise counter-strategies: “I usually review about 20 recent penalties from 2-3 players who are likely to take them. This helps me identify their patterns. With Mbappe, he scored on me last time, so I guessed he’d choose the same direction again—and I was right.”

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