Barca threat worries Riera

Liverpool winger Albert Riera says Barcelona are the team to avoid when the draw for the quarter-finals of the Champions League are made this Friday in Switzerland.

The Reds are in the last 8 pot along with the Catalan giants, Manchester United, Chelsea, Villarreal, Porto, Bayern Munich and Arsenal.

Riera says that anyone can beat anyone in the European Cup, as shown by Liverpool’s emphatic victory over Real Madrid in the last round.

“In these kind of matches you can never say that one team is the favourite,” he told today’s Liverpool Echo.

“In the last round we played Real Madrid and a lot of people were saying that they were the best in the world because in their previous 10 games they had won eight or nine of them and they had also been playing really well.

“But Liverpool played a really good match against them and were able to beat them.”

But the Spanish international says the impressive form of La Liga leaders Barcelona is enough to put anyone off drawing them in the next round.

He continued, “Barcelona are playing unbelievably well this year – their football is really good and I think people are expecting a lot from them and perhaps expecting them to win four or five nil in every game.

“It is not possible to keep this kind of level for a whole year though, but they are a team who I would prefer not to get in the Champions League draw.”

The last time Liverpool and Barcelona met was in the 2006/07 Champions League campaign when the Reds came out victorious 2-2, going through on the away goals rule. They went on to reach the final in Athens.