Barcelona head coach Xavi has said that his side will have to be at their best in order to overcome Athletic Bilbao in the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey on Wednesday night.
The Catalan outfit will enter the last-eight clash off the back of a morale-boosting 4-2 win over Real Betis in La Liga, while Athletic lost 1-0 at Valencia in their last league encounter.
Athletic had been on a 14-game unbeaten run ahead of the loss to Los Che, though, while they have won six of their last seven matches in all competitions.
Xavi has conceded that his side would have rather avoided the Basque team at this stage of the competition, and he is under no illusions when it comes to the size of the task facing the visitors to San Mames.
"We're playing for a title against a rival that perhaps we didn't want. An intense opponent, with a coach we value highly. One of the most in-form teams in the division," the Barcelona manager told reporters during his pre-match press conference on Tuesday afternoon.
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"A brave team, who push you hard, a very complicated scenario but we are prepared. A great game.
"The click would be to win tomorrow, win the semi-finals and win a title. But yes, above all to play a good game. I think we played very well against Betis, tomorrow will be different, we probably won't have the ball as much, but it's time to compete and fight for a title.
"We appreciate [Ernesto] Valverde, they are very good at pressing, we will have less time to think, very high line, we will have to know how to get out of that pressure. It's going to be hard, it's going to be a footballing war.
"Physically we are very good and the team has faith. They fight until the end, they have a winning mentality, we believe in what we are doing."
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Joao Cancelo and Andreas Christensen are both back in the squad for the quarter-final, with Xavi revealing that the former "has no more discomfort" after a spell out with a knee problem.
"They are fine, they are ready to play. They will have minutes, Joao has no more discomfort, he wants to force, he wants to play. And Christensen is the same, he's doing very well," he added.
Xavi also insisted that he will have no problem using the youngsters in the squad due to the "complicated financial situation" that the club are in.
"Yes, Lamine [Yamal] is a reality, Marc Guiu, Fermin [Lopez], [Alejandro] Balde, Pau Cubarsi, we have very prepared young players. I see a very prepared generation. We have a short squad and a complicated financial situation and we will use them," said the manager.
Barcelona will be missing five players through injury on Wednesday, with Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Marcos Alonso, Inigo Martinez, Gavi and Raphinha on the sidelines.
Matt Law
