This Wednesday at 8.45pm CET, FC Barcelona resume their Champions League bid against AS Roma, and speaking the day before, full back Jordi Alba stressed how “it is very important not to concede any goals when you play the first leg of a knockout tie at home. We are used to scoring goals, but we need to stop them from scoring too.”
The Italian side finished top of a difficult first round group and then saw off Shakhtar Donetsk to get this far, and will be no easy pickings for the Catalans. “But we have a great squad and if we play as well as we can then we are able to beat anyone” insists the 29-year-old.
“We are feeling even more confident than we did in the year of the last treble” he continues. “We are on the right track. We know how much quality we have up front and we have got a lot better in defence. We now need to use the home support to our advantage. It’s been thanks to the fans that we have won a lot of our games this season.”
On his team-mate Leo Messi, Alba comments that “seeing him on the field gives us a sense of calm. We all play better with him in the side. He completely changed the game in Seville. We always have a better chance of doing something with him on the pitch.”
The name of Sergio Busquets also came up in his pre-match conference. “He’s an essential player for us” he said. “He is the very best in his position and we hope he is out there with us tomorrow.”
