Barcelona forward Lionel Messi says the Catalans' 4-0 loss at Liverpool in last season's Champions League semi-finals "left a mark" on the club's season.
Messi, who won FIFA's The Best award for the finest footballer of the season in a ceremony in Milan on Monday night, admits the defeat also affected preparations for the Copa del Rey final, which Barca lost to Valencia later in May.
"It was strange," he told fifa.com in an interview. "We were having a fantastic season as a team and then one match changed it all.
"It was such a massive disappointment that we just didn’t attach any importance to the league and we didn’t prepare properly for the Copa del Rey final.
"That’s how big a blow it was for us. That one game left its mark on a season that had been perfect up to then. We were so close to making another Champions League final, but it ended up being a painful campaign for us."
Messi, who could make his first start of the season in tonight's La Liga clash at home to Villarreal, says he is determined to win the Champions League again.
"It’s been four years since we’ve won the Champions League and we really want to win it again," he said. "We know, though, that if we don’t do the job day in day out, then we won’t make it."
Asked about his relationship with Cristiano Ronaldo, the Argentine said: "Because of the big sporting rivalry that’s developed between us over the last few years, because one of us played for Barcelona and the other for [Real] Madrid, and because we won individual awards, people perhaps think the rivalry goes beyond football, but it doesn’t.
"We both want what’s best for our teams and neither of us like losing. It’s something we don’t accept. That’s why there’s that competitiveness between us. The important thing is that it stays there, out on the pitch."
And asked if he would still like to finish his career in his homeland, he said: "Yes. That’s what I’ve always said, haven’t I? It’s a childhood dream of mine to play in the Newell’s shirt, though I don’t know if I can make it happen.
"It’s not just down to me, though. I’ve got three children."
