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Brighton star impressed by Newcastle United Champions League credentials

7 years ago
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Newcastle United and the Champions League, happy memories.

However, they are still very much in the thoughts of Brighton Captain, Bruno.

The right-back has been a massive signing for Brighton, arriving on a free from Valencia in 2012 and giving the club brilliant service, including marshalling his defence to be currently the tightest in the second tier this season, conceding one less than Newcastle ahead of tonight’s match.

The 36 year old Brighton star has declared ‘Newcastle is a massive club in England’ ahead of the top two clash.

Bruno adding ‘To come here and play against Newcastle is a big thing’.

Chris Hughton’s Captain reveals that he is a Barcelona fan and as an impressionable 16 year old saw Tino Asprilla take Barcelona apart with that famous hat-trick back in September 1997.

Despite being a massive Barcelona fan, Bruno developed through the ranks of their city rivals Espanyol before playing for other Spanish clubs and then eventually ending up at Brighton.

Hopefully he is still in awe of Newcastle United after tonight…

These were the Champions League matches played between the two clubs, Shola scoring in Barcelona being the very secondary highlight.

Newcastle 3 Barcelona 2 (17 Sep 1997)      

Barcelona 1 Newcastle 0 (26 Nov 1997)     

Barcelona 3 Newcastle 1 (11 Dec 2002)     

Barcelona 0 Newcastle 2 (19 Mar 2003)    

Bruno speaking to Brighton and Hove Independent:

“Newcastle is a massive club in England.

“I remember because I was a Barcelona supporter watching the Champions League, with Tino Asprilla and other amazing players for Newcastle.

“To come here and play against Newcastle is a big thing but it is 46 games and a lot of games this season.

“It’s a big game because of the table and because Newcastle is a big club in England – but we take the game as it comes.

“It’s another three points and we want to try to play with the same shape as we played against Reading. The Reading game was massive for us and we try to approach every game with the same intensity and the same basics.

“Even when you approach massive games, you cannot change anything. You have to keep doing the same things.

“We’re so pleased because we know one of our biggest strengths is clean sheets. We know if we keep a clean sheet, normally we win the game.

“But every single team during the season will have a bad period. We have had that period already and most important is that period was really short and we came back stronger.”

“The fans were unbelievable (v Reading) again. The stadium was packed and tomorrow’s going to be packed as well.

“They always help us to get that extra metre, that extra effort and that’s really nice.

“It’s a nice feeling to be captain and it would be a nice feeling to get the trophy but the main thing is to get promoted.

“It’s not just about myself, I’m not selfish. I’m not just thinking about getting the trophy or whatever, it’s all about the team and club.”

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