“A single match against Shakhtar will be difficult”

Gerard Piqué is well aware that it will be no easy task to beat Shakhtar on Friday in Monaco: “Last year they showed us that they are a great team and they ended up winning the UEFA Cup. A single match will be difficult”.

The Barça players go head to head with Shakhtar Donetsk in Monaco on Friday. They met twice last season in the Champions League group stage so Gerard Piqué knows what the Ukrainians can do and assured reporters on Tuesday that a single match final “will be very difficult”.

Lesson learned

However, he is convinced there will be no repeat of the experience in 2006 when Barça were beaten 3-0 in Monaco by UEFA Cup champions Sevilla, a blow that conditioned the rest of the 2006-07 season: “We mustn’t think about what happened then. We’ve learned our lesson and I’m sure it won’t happen again. It’s impossible and I’m not nervous about that. We can win or lose but this will be another great year. The boss won’t let that happen”.
Maximum motivation

Piqué stressed that the squad is ready to win the second trophy of the season: “We’re going into the match to win. In the Spanish Super Cup match against Bilbao the team showed that the standard reached is pretty good and that we can win. When you win titles the excitement and pride makes you even more determined”.

More competition in the squad

Regarding the possible incorporation of Ukrainian central defender Chygrynskiy, Piqué told reporters it would bring more competition to the squad and would therefore be positive: “If both the boss and the director of football want him then he must have quality. Competition is good in a football team. It makes everyone push themselves to the maximum to get a place in the team”.

Focussed on themselves

Piqué played down the media hype surrounding Real Madrid signings Kaká, Cristiano and Benzema: “When do we hear about Messi, Iniesta and Ibrahimovic? This is all nonsense. It doesn’t make me angry. I just don’t care and it means more pressure on them. We just have to focus on the European Super Cup and on the League, which starts on Monday”.

Starting again

Finally, Piqué emphasised that the past is now water under the bridge and that the competitions in the season just starting have to be won all over again: “The level of the close season is something in the past. When the season starts it all begins again. Obviously, Real Madrid will win matches and what we have to do is win more. It helps to have practically the same team as last years. It doesn’t matter how Real Madrid plays. When the season begins we’ll see who the best is”.
By:Shane evans