Gerard Pique has reminded Bayern Munich that it was his Barcelona that ended recent dominance in the field, and warned them of Lionel Messi.
The 2008-09 version of La Blaugrana ran out comfortable 4-0 winners over Bayern in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final, for a first ever competitive win for the Spanish.
Defender Pique has chosen to reflect on this in the build-up to this week’s semi-final first leg against the Bavarians.
“We are excited by this week’s game, we want to win. We play football to be involved in this kind of game,” Pique told AS in an interview published today.
“Bayern are a really great opponent, but nobody should forget that we are still a great team. There was a time when the game was defined as a sport played 11 against 11 that the Germans would always win.
“And it is us who ended that. With Barca and Spain we have imposed a way to play that has changed history.
“They are physically stronger? It happens with most teams that we face and we have not gone wrong.
“We have the team that we have and it is an advantage to have players like Messi, Xavi, Iniesta. What we have to do is concentrate more.
“A Clasico final? We have enough with Bayern. We are mistaken to think about the final. It could have happened last year and neither of us made the final…”
Lionel Messi is travelling with the squad to Germany, but is still without medical clearance.
“We’d be fools if we thought that he does not matter. He is the best in the world and he makes things easier.
“Surely the opponents would prefer him not to play. It gets into the skin that they have to cover him and it is not pleasant, whoever denies it is lying.
“I played against him for Zaragoza and then he was not even half of what he is now and I know that the game will be one thing with him and another without him.”
Pique is one booking away from an automatic one game suspension.
“I’d be lying if I said I do not have it on my mind. Recently I have been getting used to the situation because I have been booked very early, for the first play I have done, and I have then had to play the whole game a lot calmer. You look not to go down on the ground first, you try to endure more. You meditate a little.”
The defender was asked of his time away from Barcelona at Manchester United, and whether that would be of value to other Blaugrana players as an experience.
“For me it was fine. Maybe it is good to leave Barca for a while because you require other things that will help.
“In my case, having the chance to go to England saw me gain intensiveness and force and then to Zaragoza [on loan] I understood what it was to play and not dominate the game all the while. That did not happen in the youth ranks at Barca.”
