Mesut Ozil says Arsenal have to remain "ice cold" in the heated atmosphere of the Camp Nou to have a chance of beating Barcelona in Wednesday's round-of-16 Champions League match.
Arsenal face the daunting task of having to overturn a 2-0 deficit at the home of the defending champions, a stadium where Arsene Wenger has never won.
But unlike his manager, Ozil has some positive memories from the Camp Nou after winning there with Real Madrid.
And the Germany playmaker knows what to expect when he enters the stadium again on Wednesday evening.
"It will be very loud because the Spanish people especially, they are crazy about football," Ozil said in his first English-language interview with the Arsenal website. "They have a lot of supporters in the stadium, maybe 95,000 or even more. So it will be loud and of course Barcelona will try to dominate the game and try to score early to finish the game.
"But we have good players in our team as well so we can also dominate the game if we believe in ourselves and take our chances. Last time we had chances but didn't score. This time we have to score. We have to be ice cold in front of goal. If we have a chance, we have to score against such a big team."
Arsenal dug themselves a hole in the first leg by missing a couple of good scoring chances and then being caught on the counter-attack as Lionel Messi put his team ahead.
Messi added the second from the penalty spot after another defensive mix-up to give Barcelona a comfortable cushion.
With Barcelona on a 37-game unbeaten run, Arsenal's chances of advancing have been all-but written off by everyone except themselves.
"We have to go there and believe in ourselves," Ozil said. "We saw against Barcelona, if we play our game -- as we did in the first 20 minutes where we had a lot of chances against them -- and score in the first half, we can do it.
"We know they have the best team right now with the best players in the world, so it will be difficult. Every player knows that against the biggest clubs, we have to show our quality. Every player wants to play against the best team, against the best players, so we have to have the opportunity to come to the next round.
"In football, anything can happen. Our goal has to be to win the game."
Arsenal face the daunting task of having to overturn a 2-0 deficit at the home of the defending champions, a stadium where Arsene Wenger has never won.
But unlike his manager, Ozil has some positive memories from the Camp Nou after winning there with Real Madrid.
And the Germany playmaker knows what to expect when he enters the stadium again on Wednesday evening.
"It will be very loud because the Spanish people especially, they are crazy about football," Ozil said in his first English-language interview with the Arsenal website. "They have a lot of supporters in the stadium, maybe 95,000 or even more. So it will be loud and of course Barcelona will try to dominate the game and try to score early to finish the game.
"But we have good players in our team as well so we can also dominate the game if we believe in ourselves and take our chances. Last time we had chances but didn't score. This time we have to score. We have to be ice cold in front of goal. If we have a chance, we have to score against such a big team."
Arsenal dug themselves a hole in the first leg by missing a couple of good scoring chances and then being caught on the counter-attack as Lionel Messi put his team ahead.
Messi added the second from the penalty spot after another defensive mix-up to give Barcelona a comfortable cushion.
With Barcelona on a 37-game unbeaten run, Arsenal's chances of advancing have been all-but written off by everyone except themselves.
"We have to go there and believe in ourselves," Ozil said. "We saw against Barcelona, if we play our game -- as we did in the first 20 minutes where we had a lot of chances against them -- and score in the first half, we can do it.
"We know they have the best team right now with the best players in the world, so it will be difficult. Every player knows that against the biggest clubs, we have to show our quality. Every player wants to play against the best team, against the best players, so we have to have the opportunity to come to the next round.
"In football, anything can happen. Our goal has to be to win the game."
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