25.08.2009 19:13
“A single match against Shakhtar will be difficult”
Vanessa Forns
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”.