Barca Seek Home Advantage Against Juve
03/21/2003. Philip Cocu is confident that Barcelona will beat Juventus and believes that the draw has been kind to the Catalan outfit.
The Dutch midfielder knows that the Italian league leaders will be a tough proposition, but is happy to be playing in Turin first.
"Now we are into the knockout stages it will be very tough against Juventus," he explained.
"But the advantage is that we are playing the second leg in Camp Nou.
"The situation is better than it was last year because if we make it to the semi finals we will also play the second match at home.
"As the coach, Raddy Antic, has said we must concentrate on playing as a team and perform to the highest level now we are in the elimination stages."
Antic was keen to remind people that although Juve are seen as strong opponents, the Italians will not be relishing playing his side.
"Juve are very good, but we are Barcelona and we have every possibility of beating them," the Serb trainer said.
Luis Enrique took a slightly more detailed look at the Blaugrana's next challenge in their impressive European campaign.
"This tie will be a complicated one," the Barca captain suggested. "Italian sides always present you with many problems.
"They are very, very strong in defence and have a very good attack.
"But we knew that any of the teams that we could have been paired with were going to be tough because now we are down to the final run-in."
soccerage.com