FCBARCELONA.CAT

11.09.2008 21:02

Piqué: "Camp Nou should be a fortress"

David Puig

Gerard Piqué is hoping that FC Barcelona can record their first league victory of the season when Racing Santander visit on Sunday evening and thinks that the key to success is making Camp Nou into a fortress.

"I think that Camp Nou should be an impregnable fortress for our opponents," he told reporters ahead of the Blaugrana's first home game in la Primera of the new season. During the press conference after training on Thursday evening, the Catalan defender explained that everyone is keen to record the team's first points against Racing (8pm). "We want to play the game and prove to people that the team that they saw in pre-season was not just an illusion," he said. "Camp Nou should be a fortress and have not escape exits. Opponents always show us a lot of respect and we have to be able to take advantage of that."

Hampered preparations

Due to the latest round of World Cup qualifiers, Barça have not had much time to prepare for the encounter and Piqué recognised that things will have to be done quickly. "This is how the fixture list is and there is nothing that we can do," he explained. "These are not the best conditions to prepare for a game but at least we have not lost our physical shape. But we do not have a lot of time to study our opponents and prepare tactically."

Defending Messi

Piqué then spoke out in Lionel Messi's defence after the Argentinian forward was accused of being "individualistic" by Diego Maradona. "Messi is the best player in the world," he stated. "I think that Maradona's criticism is unjust. A few days ago he said that Messi was his heir and now he comes out with that. Messi brings so much to the team and, on occasion, he needs to be an individualist in order to score or to move forward. He should stay calm and forget about these criticisms and only focus on himself and the team."