UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE QUARTER-FINAL FIRST LEG Barcelona v Shakhtar Donetsk:BARCELONA HEAD into tonight's Champions League clash against Shakhtar Donetsk in buoyant mood, although striker David Villa admits to concern over his recent lack of goals at club level.
Barca now boast an eight-point advantage over Real Madrid at the Primera Division summit with only eight games remaining after Pep Guardiola’s men took full advantage of Madrid’s shock home defeat to Sporting Gijon by beating third-placed Villarreal 1-0.
Gerard Pique was Barca’s match-winner in that game as Villa again failed to end his goalscoring drought for the Catalan giants. Although he recently became Spain’s record goalscorer with a brace against the Czech Republic, Villa has not found the back of the net in his last six outings for Barca – having previously struck in four successive matches and notched 21 goals for the club since his big-money summer move from Valencia.
Villa said: “Whenever you don’t score you get a little worried, but what I have to do is work hard in training and in games and be calm. You have hardly any time to decide what to do (in front of goal), and sometimes you decide well, and other times you make a bad choice and don’t score.
“A goal will arrive and if I don’t score a team-mate will.”
Despite Villa’s barren spell, Barca have barely broken stride, winning seven and drawing the other of their last eight games to continue their bid for a second treble in three seasons.
Barca are also in the final of the Copa del Rey, where they face Real Madrid later this month.
Shakhtar are underdogs against the 2006 and 2009 European champions, but the Ukrainian outfit know what it is like to win at the Nou Camp. They won 3-2 in the Catalan city in 2008 – albeit against a much-changed home side – while Shakhtar also pushed Barca all the way in the final of the 2009 Uefa Super Cup before going down to a Pedro Rodriguez goal in the 115th minute.
Shakhtar captain Darijo Srna heaped praise on Barca, but warned Guardiola’s men that his side have nothing to lose heading into the game.
“We are facing an immense team, they are the best team in the world and in my view I think they are the best football team in history,” he said
“We’ve already achieved our goal of being among the best eight teams in Europe. It’s a great success, and now we feel no pressure, we’re going to go out on the pitch and play football. It will be tough, but I can promise our fans that we are going to give it everything.”
