Chris Smalling is hoping to 'minimise' Lionel Messi's chances against Manchester United in the Champions League quarter final first leg at Old Trafford.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side host the La Liga giants on Wednesday night and will have a tough task containing the Spanish giants who haven't lost since January 23, winning 11 and drawing five of their last 16 matches.
While many have spoken about the daunting task facing United Smalling is relishing the opportunity to play against one of the best in the world in Messi.
"I’ve not played against him competitively, personally, but in friendlies and pre-season we have,” Smalling told manutd.com. “That’s someone else who I’m looking forward to playing against and hopefully minimising as many chances as possible, because we know what a world-class player he is. But it’s not just him; I think they’re a world-class team.
“We need to make sure that whatever game-plan we have – just like PSG – that we stick to it and everything falls into line. We know that we can give any team a right go.”
The Manchester United player key to beating Barcelona in Champions League quarter-final
The clash is the pick of the games in the last eight of the European competition and Smalling explained how the players celebrated when they discovered they'd be facing the Spanish giants.
Smalling, who was recovering from injury when the draw was made in March, admitted he is looking forward to the opportunity to test himself.
"We were warming up on the bikes in the gym [when the draw was made],” the defender added. “Normally we do 10 minutes on the bike and then we do some gym activation, but I think we stayed on the bikes for maybe 20 minutes just because we saw the draw was on the TV.
Manchester United might have found their perfect technical director
“We were all excited. As soon as it came out, we were all happy. We cheered and then we got on with training. But at least we knew who was in front of us.
“When the draw was made, you think, ‘I want to play against teams like this.’ I was injured or just coming back from being injured for the first game [of the last 16 against PSG], so it was nice to be able to test yourself against the best, and I think PSG are one of the best teams in the world.”
