You have woken the beast! Alvaro Negredo on Lionel Messi

You have woken the beast! Alvaro Negredo on Lionel Messi

This Sunday at 9pm CET Barcelona face the new Valencia of Nuno Espirito Santo, in the Mestalla. One of the men on that team will be former Real Madrid and Manchester City striker Alvaro Negredo.

The striker is eager to score and show that it "was not a mistake to sign him", as he explained to Onda Cero. 

Negredo, who is set to start against Barcelona, knows that Valencia must work hard from the first minute and keep tight, to stop Barcelona from having as much possession. 

"Barcelona have a style of play that kills you because you have to run after the ball for a lot of time," he said. "Very few teams know how to counter it, but we will try and hopefully we will get it right."

Despite Barcelona not playing so well over the past few weeks, the Los Che hitman has no doubts about the potency of Enrique's side. 

"Barcelona have bad days or even a bad month, but they are always there," he explained. 

-Messi, Xavi and Pique-

Asked about the records Messi broke in the last week, Negredo said: "You have woken the beast by saying he wasn't doing anything." 

He was also full of praise for Xavi Hernandez, commenting that the midfielder "will always play in my team" and said of Gerard Pique, "He's one of the best centre-backs there is. He can be in a good or bad moment but his quality is indisputable."