Roque Santa Cruz believes that Malaga’s chances of eliminating Barcelona from the Copa del Rey are ‘pretty good’.
La Rosaleda plays host this Thursday to the second leg quarter-final between Malaga and Barca, with the Costa del Sol outfit holding the slight advantage with a 2-2 result picked up last week at Camp Nou.
“Our chances are pretty good. We go into this with a result that is open and we look forward to a great game and to try to get a result that will allow us to progress,” reflected the Paraguayan international today.
“Our chances remain intact. Moreover, to eliminate a team like Barca would be something special.
“The fact of playing against Barcelona, with the opportunity in this instance to progress to the next stage is something that I understand is a situation this club has never been in before.
“It is a special situation. It is the ambition of the fans and the players and it represents something special for everyone.”
Barcelona go into this match off the back of a first League defeat of the season at the weekend.
“Besides Barcelona’s trip up away from home, without doubt what gives us more confidence as a group is the result we got there at Camp Nou. After that, they could have stumbled to anyone.
“I very much doubt that with the quality of the players they have that their confidence in their ability has dropped, though. We are looking forward to the game, where we can show our ability and produce the best performance yet.
“We have shown in the previous game against them that when a team is not at 100 per cent that it has its limitations and problems, and we will try to highlight that again and show our strengths.
“In Cup games, each one is a final. The first game against Cacereno was considered a final, but it is easier to have the motivation when the game is against Barcelona.”
