Arturo Vidal: 'We can beat anybody'

Arturo Vidal will be suspended for the Champions League second leg with Napoli after getting sent off in Naples, but he is confident his team will get the job done without him. Speaking to Barcelona-based sports daily Mundo Deportivo he said “I can see us lifting the Champions League trophy. We are Barça and so it is our duty to win this competition, and we have the team and the players to do it. We have to respect Napoli, but we are capable of beating anybody on our day.”

The Chilean feels that “we have to go and look for the game from the very first minute. We need to play our game, be aggressive from start to finish and show that we want it. We want to send out a message in this game to show Europe what we plan to do in the future.”

He also revealed that he plans to get a tattoo done if Barça do become champions of Europe and insisted that he wants to see out the contract that binds him to FC Barcelona until at least 30 June 2021.

De Jong confident of victory

Frenkie de Jong, meanwhile, was speaking to another major newspaper, Sport, and his views are similar to his midfield companion’s. We can win the Champions League” he says. “The squad is full of full of positive energy and good sensations”.

As he already commented in an interview with Barça TV+ the day before, the Dutchman says “it is a shame that we will have no fans in Camp Nou because they always help us a lot. I think it’s very difficult for opponents to come here and play in front of 100,000 people. I want the fans to stay positive and believe in the team. We know the league didn’t end as we would have liked but we want them to have faith in us from their homes,”

“We have been watching the first leg with Napoli again and also some of their other recent games” he continues. "So we know what we have to do, and what we will do, and we believe in our chances. But I’m not going to give anything anyway because then everyone will know, and most especially Napoli!”

Rakitic needs accuracy

Ivan Rakitic has also been chatting to the press, in his case El País, commenting that Barça "need a good game to beat Napoli. We need to move the ball around, be accurate and also hold our calm, confidence and patience … We will need to work together to beat their defence and apply deep pressure, while making sure that we don’t leave any space behind us that could give us problems with their counter attack.”