Barcelona striker Zlatan Ibrahimovich said on Monday that his side are always favorite no matter what the competition it is playing in.
The former Inter Milan striker made his declarations in sports paper El Mundo Deportivo just two days ahead of Barca's Champions League semi-final return leg against his former club.
Barcelona lost the first leg 3-1 in Milan and the Swede will have a big role in any fightback, but he admitted that the side coached by Jose Mourinho has changed in the past 12 months.
"This is a different Inter side to the one I played in. They have four or five new players and they are strong and aggressive and Inter is a more complete side. We have to pressure them, but above all we have to play our style of football. We need to play our own game," he said, warning against being drawn into a physical battle.
"I don't think we should be drawn into that sort of thing. I am certain they will try and exploit their strength, but we can't change our football," insisted Ibrahimovich.
"We have to be ourselves. We lost in Milan because we didn't play our game and they were able to impose their style," he said.
Ibrahimovich took heart from Barcelona's home games in the last two rounds, in which they won 4-0 against Stuttgart and 4-1 against Arsenal.
"We are a side that scores a lot of goals and that is just what we need to do to get to the final. All of the players are prepared for this game. We have a fighting spirit and a lot of confidence," he said with one more message for the fans.
"Barcelona are always favorite. It doesn't matter what competition we play in, we are always favorites, because we are Barca," said the striker.
Go to Forum >>0 Comments