Tuesday, September 15, 2015

No special Roma Messi plan - Garcia

Roma coach Rudi Garcia says he has no special plans to deal with Lionel Messi in Wednesday's Champions League encounter with Barcelona.

The Argentina international, who helped fire his side to a European and domestic treble last term, came off the bench to guide them to a 2-1 victory over Atletico Madrid with a fine goal in Saturday's Liga game.
Garcia, though, feels Roma cannot focus solely on the 28-year-old when they welcome Luis Enrique's men to the Italian capital in their opening game in Group E.

"There's no anti-Messi plan, just as there isn't one to stop Luis Suarez or Andres Iniesta," Garcia said at a news conference.

"You deal with that threat as a team, both in attack and defence. We don't plan on defending for the whole game. We know there will be times when we have to dig in but we also have to use the ball well to give the opposition a problem.

"We're running out of superlatives to describe Messi. He's one of - if not - the best in the world."

Garcia then went on to concede that Barcelona are one of the best teams in the world, but he was quick to stress Roma will give their all to get a good result.

"We know Barcelona are a top side and the reigning European champions. They've won their first three league matches and there's no need to repeat all the praise they've been given," he continued.

"We know all about them. If they're not the best in the world, they're certainly up there.

"We'll play with humility but also ambition. We want to qualify for the next round and to do so we'll need to perform as well as we can in all six games in order to pick up points."

No comments:

Post a Comment