Ivan Rakitic revelled in Barcelona’s ‘beautiful moment’ after their 1-0 victory over Manchester City in the Champions League last 16 on Wednesday.
The midfielder scored the winning goal at Camp Nou to secure La Blaugrana’s place in the quarter-finals of the competition, and he could not hold back his delight ahead of the Clasico against Real Madrid at the weekend.
“I think we did a great job, maybe we could’ve scored more goals, but everyone in the stadium saw a great game and a great Barca,” he said after the game.
“We want to continue [in this competition] and don’t want to stop here.
“Congratulations to [City] goalkeeper [Joe] Hart because he had a great game, but we enjoyed ourselves on the pitch the field and the win was the most important thing.
“It’s normal [that we slowed down towards the end]. They have very dangerous players in attack, but we did a great job and deserved to win.
“Now we’ll go on to enjoy [the rest of the season] and make sure we rest well.
“What [Lionel] Messi’s doing at the moment is amazing, I think even the City players enjoyed his performance.
“Right now we’ll savour this result and rest well. We always want to win [the Clasico] but there are no favourites as ever. Now comes the most beautiful moment of the season.
“[Team selection for the Clasico] is a question for the Coach. We all want to play in that game, but it’s for the Coach to decide. We have a very large squad.”
