Maximum caution in the Barça dressing room despite epic Copa win

Barcelona's epic victory over Granada led to an overdose of adrenalin on the pitch at Los Carmenes. Hugs and screams of satisfaction followed Barça's 5-3 extra-time win in the quarterfinal of the Copa del Rey. They were minutes of happiness but the players soon returned to 'real life.' After the match, there were no big speeches or ambitious proclamations. The Barça squad know they need to keep a low profile. The veterans are in charge of that, aware that recent experiences have shown there's no room to relax.

Upon returning to the dressing room, some celebrations were heard among the players. The effort to turn the game around was titanic -- 2-0 down heading into the 88th minute -- and the team fought as a group until the final second. But beyond that, the players quickly returned to 'normality,' conscious that there's still a huge amount of improvement needed.

On the pitch, Messi has asked his teammates to stay calm after they made it 2-2. After the game, there was no need to call for calm because everyone is thinking in the same manner: the team is still in the construction phase and must maintain a low profile. Just last month they let the Spanish Supercopa escape them when it was won, so there's no time to think about big conquests. In a certain way, the fact that no one had Barça among the favourites in any competition has helped install a 'Cholista' (Diego Simeone) message on the inside: take it game by game.

Youngsters like Pedri, De Jong and Araujo are adding a lot to the side in terms of freshening things up, while the veterans are starting to see the ship taking off. However, they also know the reality of recent seasons: Roma, Anfield, the 8-2... From that point, the captains mark the line: it's important to have ambition but we must stay off the radar. The reality is that Atletico have a hand on La Liga and the Champions League is, right now, more of a dream than a real objective.

The tie against Paris Saint-Germain is around the corner and the dressing room accepts -- and even feel it's a positive -- that the French side are labelled the favourites. Barça have seen several times how little that serves for. There are still 10 days until the first leg and Ronald Koeman must take advantage of them to keep the group growing. Slowly but surely. Without relaxing but without exerting too much pressure.

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