Alvaro Morata has insisted that Juventus respect but do not fear Barcelona’s Lionel Messi ahead of the Champions League final on Saturday.
The Spaniard scored the goal that knocked his former club Real Madrid out of the semi-finals and is now ready to fire the Bianconeri to European glory in Berlin this weekend.
“I’d be lying if I said that [playing Barca] doesn’t give me added motivation to win [the final],” he told Cadena COPE.
“I grew up at Real Madrid, played there a long time and have many friends there, so I hope to make two sets of fans happy.
“[Juve] are very motivated. We know it’s a Champions League final and we can enter football history [by winning it].
“Playing a Champions League final is a special feeling. We know it’ll be very difficult to win because we face a team who are in good form, so I think we need to have a great game in order to win it.
“[Barca] are a great team. We have a chance of beating them, but they’re the favourites.
“[Messi] doesn’t scare us. We all respect Messi as he’s one of the best players in the world.
“Messi and Cristiano [Ronaldo] are above everyone else, but we have a great defence that [Barca] will have to face.”
