Spaniard sounding bullish ahead of Champions League meeting.
Manchester City star Jesus Navas has hit back at Lionel Messi’s recent claims about this being the worst time to face the La Liga giants by insisting that his side can do the damage necessary to progress to the next round of the Champions League, the Daily Express reports.
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Navas believes that bookies odds claiming Barca as favourites are wrong as the two teams gear up to meet for the second successive season.
Barca are currently on an 11-game hot streak, and Messi believes that despite earlier troubles, his side won’t have any problems in repeating the 4-1 aggregate win they enjoyed over Manuel Pellegrini’s men last term.
However, Navas has said that City won’t be laying out the red carpet for their Spanish counterparts, and will give them as good as they get.
“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,” Navas said.
“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.”