• Premier League

Pique 'confident' Barcelona will knock out Arsenal

ESPNsoccernet staff
January 12, 2011
Lionel Messi has won back-to-back World Footballer of the Year awards at Barcelona © Getty Images
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Barcelona defender Gerard Pique believes Lionel Messi will be key when they come up against Arsenal in the Champions League and says the Spanish club are confident of progress.

Pique was in the side as Messi demolished the Gunners with four goals in the quarter-finals last season and maintains that the Argentine - who has just been crowned the best player in the world - will be hungry to repeat the feat again.

"Leo is the best in the world. He's hugely important for Barcelona,'' he is quoted as telling The Sun. "When you win titles you can feel that happiness and you really want to have the same feeling again.

"So we have the same hunger for titles like the Champions League two years ago. We're confident of winning against Arsenal."

Pique was one of six Barca players named in the FIFA/FIFPRO world XI and thinks the praise lavished on the side by the global football community can only increase their confidence.

"These awards give us a tremendous boost to our confidence ahead of the Arsenal games,'' he said. ''We want to win the Champions League again and we are confident we can do it. When you see your work is recognised in this way and you are in these type of meetings with so many great players you want to be there every year. You have to work hard and fight to be here. We are ready for that."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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