FCBARCELONA.CAT

04.05.2009 21:30

Piqué: “Let’s talk about the Champions please!”

Edgar Fornós

Gerard Piqué insists that the team now have to “concentrate on Chelsea”, stressing the fact that: “the win against Madrid is history. We’ll remember it even better if we also get to Rome. Right now, let’s talk about the Champions League please!”

There’s hardly been time for the players to savour the taste of the team’s thrashing of Madrid before they now face one of the toughest games of the season with their visit to Stamford Bridge.

Pique is demanding that the club centres all its attention on the Champions League semi final, whilst also pleading for calm after the exhibition at the Bernabeu: “sure, we’ve put in a season playing at the highest level, but we’ve still won nothing yet. We have to keep our feet on the ground. The win over Madrid was great, but that won’t win us the game against Chelsea. If we want a win in London, we have to be totally focussed”.

Stamford Bridge atmosphere

Piqué has no doubts that the game in London will be “very tough”, but reckons that Hiddink’s defensive tactics for the Nou Camp game will have to change: “if they want to reach the final, they know they have to score and that means they have to come out of their shell. Stamford Bridge is a smaller pitch and that’ll make it harder for us to play our normal game. What’s more, the fans there are very close to the play and the pressure from them will be tremendous”.

2-6 – morale booster

Inevitably though, the 2-6 win on Saturday is still fresh in the memory and Pique admitted: “it really does help us to have got such a result against Madrid. Knowing that the league title is so close now is a real boost to us and will push us to work even harder for the Chelsea game”.