Valverde: Barca would love to reach Champions League final

The club saw off Manchester United in the last eight

Barcelona boss Ernesto Valverde says his team are “very excited” to be in the last four of the Champions League and would love to reach the final.

The team eased past Manchester United in the quarter-finals and will go on to play either Liverpool or Porto in the last four, and Valverde says his team are feeling confident in his post-match press conference.

“We are very excited. It’s been a while since we were in the semi-finals – now we’d love to get to the final,” he said.

“We are confident, but we know that five bad minutes can leave you eliminated.

“Juventus are out, but I don’t know if this is an advantage considering what Ajax are doing.”

Source | UEFA

Valverde also spoke about Lionel Messi, who scored twice in the win over Manchester United, to take his tally to 10 for the season in Europe’s top competition.

“[He] always gets us out of trouble,” he said. “It’s lucky for us. He played great football and his goals changed the way the game was going.

“But I’m not going to apologise to our rivals because we’ve got Messi and they don’t!”

Tuesday saw an exciting night of action in the Champions League. On the other side of the draw Ajax knocked out Juventus to set up a semi-final against either Manchester City or Tottenham.

Source: barcablaugranes.com