Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre Ter Stegen has said that the club are determined to cover up the attacking threat from Manchester United during the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final. The Blaugrana are currently holding a slender 1-0 advantage from the first leg and they are regarded as favourites to progress with their healthy European record at the Camp Nou.
He told reporters: “You always have to watch out. We saw in the first leg that they can play with a calmness. We want to start well and dominate the game. We play differently to PSG but you can’t just defend a lead. We’ve got a narrow lead and they’re dangerous. We’ve got to keep the ball and create chances to score against them and extend our lead. A clean sheet is our objective. They’ve got good attacking threats going forward. What we want to do is defend well when we need to and be ready to attack when the opportunity presents itself.”
Barcelona are unbeaten in 30 European matches at the Camp Nou and manager Ernesto Valverde should be confident of continuing the run, given United’s defensive concerns on the road of late. Meanwhile, the Blaugrana have been boosted by the fact that Lionel Messi has avoided a nose fracture after the accidental collision with Chris Smalling and Valverde has confirmed that the Argentine should feature from the off on Tuesday night. The 31-year-old did not have the best of games at Old Trafford, but he made the key impact with the cross contributing towards Luke Shaw’s own goal.