Fabregas: Club rivalry must end

Spain midfielder Cesc Fabregas is hopeful Barcelona and Real Madrid can put aside their club rivalries for the sake of the national team.

Meetings between La Liga’s top two have been especially ill-tempered in the past 12 months, marred by touchline brawls and accusations of gamesmanship.

It has been suggested that tense relations between the two clubs could undermine Spain’s defence of the European Championship.

The reigning champions will qualify for next year’s finals in Poland and the Ukraine if they overcome Liechtenstein on Tuesday.

And Fabregas, who re-joined Barca from Arsenal in August, has called on the two squads to unite behind the national cause.

“It’s very clear that when Barca play Madrid the players of Madrid want to win for Madrid and the players of Barcelona want to win for Barca,” Fabregas said.

“This is something that no one could change, and no one will change.”

“Now we have all come here as team-mates and we are here to defend the best interests of the national team.”

“Because we if we want to repeat what we have achieved in the last three to four years then we have to be closer together to achieve that.”

Spain will be without their regular centre-back pairing of Carlos Puyol and Gerard Pique, but Fabregas is confident they can overcome the absence of his club team-mates.

“It’s clear that they are two great defenders, and when you don’t have them in the team you notice it,” Fabregas said.

“The same thing has happened to us with them at the club and we miss them a lot, but then again we have other great players that can do a good job.”

“I don’t think we need to find excuses for this. If we are the champions of the world then it’s because we have many variations.”

“And while these two are fundamental for the team, I feel we have other players who can achieve great things for the team as well.”

Spain have lost three friendlies against quality opposition since their World Cup triumph, going down to Portugal, Argentina and Italy.

But they have won all five matches played in qualifying Group I.

And Manchester City forward David Silva is unconcerned about the occasional reverse, unless it comes in a competitive fixture.

“Well I think that the national team should always win or at least to try and win all the games, 100 per cent,” Silva said.

“We, of course, know that the competitive games are much more important.”

“And hopefully it stays like this that we always win the qualifiers, the European Championships, the World Cups.”

“Even the friendlies, but if we do not do so well there maybe it’s also because we bring in many players, try new things, all of which helps us towards winning the competitive games.”