Jesus Navas: Manchester City can hurt in-form Barcelona

JESUS NAVAS has countered Lionel Messi’s claim that Manchester City could be not meeting in-form Barcelona at a worse time.

06:30, Fri, Feb 20, 2015 | UPDATED: 10:21, Fri, Feb 20, 2015

Jesus Navas GETTY

Jesus Navas believes City are well-equipped to hurt Barcelona

City winger Navas says Barcelona should not be the odds-on favourites when the two clubs meet for the second season running in the Champions League last 16.

But after an 11-game winning run in Spain, Messi agrees with the bookmakers’ verdict that the Catalan giants will repeat last season’s triumph when they went through on a 4-1 aggregate.

Former Seville star Navas cranked up the stakes ahead of Tuesday’s first leg at the Etihad Stadium by saying: ”I don’t see Barca as favourites. It’ll be very even. I think both teams have the chance to go through and it will be a very good contest.

”We will have to think and be smart. The tie starts at our ground and the key is to have a lot of intensity there. From there we can get a result that gives us options at Camp Nou.

”We are very fast in attack and we like to counter. I think that could be harmful to Barca. Everyone knows that’s one of our main weapons."

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Messsi however claims Barca are bang in storm after an 11-game winning streak in all competitions has left them only a point behind Real Madrid in La Liga and in the Copa del Rey semi-finals.

”The truth is that we are in good form,“ he said. ”Fortunately, after our poor start to the year, when we lost at Real Sociedad, everything changed for us.

”We are now in a different dynamic and everything is going in the right direction. The team has confidence and there is a different attitude and a lot of determination. That is the reason why we are today where we are.

”We face City just as we did last year and they are a team with a lot of great players. It’s going to be a really difficult tie.

”The aim for them is to go through because they have never progressed to the quarter-finals. We expect a level tie and it will be decided by [small] details.

”It’s going to be a beautiful challenge especially because City have re-inforced their team a lot."