FCBARCELONA.CAT

18.02.2010 13:59

Piqué: “We’re buzzing with confidence”

Vanessa Forns

League defeat at Atlético Madrid has not dampened any spirits among the players. Gerard Piqué claims they are still “buzzing with confidence.”

The centre back isn’t going to let Sunday night’s setback get to him. “We have no doubts” he said. “There were a lot of people looking forward to us losing our first game and they’re happy now. That’s understandable, there are people that don’t support Barça and want their team to win the League”.

Piqué missed the last game though suspension, but will be back this weekend against Racing, where he has no doubt what the result will be. “We’re buzzing with confidence. Saturday’s coming and we’re going to win again. We have no doubt about that. We will just keep doing our thing, and we won’t drop our guard.”

Strong points at Racing

The Catalan was asked to comment on one of the sensations of the Liga season, Sergio Canales. “He’s a quality player and he’s showing that. He has scored lots of goals and has great skill. If he plays against us, we’ll try to cut him out of the game.” On Racing as a whole, Pique described them as “awkward, and they are playing better under their new manager, who likes to play on the counter attack”.

Home wins

Barça now have back to back home matches against Racing and Malaga and Piqué commented that “we can’t let points go at the Camp Nou. We are on a good run, and I’m sure we’ll get all six points”.

Recovery from injuries

Chygrynskiy and Touré both rejoined the group today, while Xavi and Alves trained with fitness coaches. Said Pique: “we are getting our players back. It feels good. They say Touré might be fit for the Racing game. We are just training as normal. Yes, there have been a lot of injuries in the space of a week, but there’s no call for alarm. But we’ve not been worried at any point, because we know we have a good squad.”

Champions League is back

The Champions League is back next week, and the former Man United player said “we have to be careful to avoid distractions … in the Champions League, ten poor minutes can cost you the match. It’s all decided in just two games. It’s life or death. In the League you can afford to make mistakes and still have a chance. The Champions League shows what a team is made of when it comes to one-off situations and against the very best teams in Europe.”

Looking to renew

Piqué admits that at the age of 23, “I still have a lot of room for improvement.” In terms of the renewal of his contract, he announced that “I’ll be signing soon. There’s no problem. It’s an issue that’ll soon be sorted out”.

Real Madrid

Piqué was asked to comment on Real Madrid, who lost in the Champions League last night, and responded that he was fairly indifferent as to what Pellegrini’s side does or does not achieve. If they get knocked out “the League will be their only objective … and for the moment they aren’t depending on other results, but there’s a long way to go yet. Last season they expected to get all three points at the Bernabéu”. More important for Piqué is for his own team “to get things right and only worry about what we do ourselves”.

He was also asked how he felt about the potential of Cesc Fàbregas playing one day for Barça: “I still think he’ll be wearing the Barça shirt one day, he is a fan and I know he’d love to come back. When? That’s another matter entirely.”