Yaya Toure talked with UEFA.com about FC Barcelona and what his feelings were before this big game. Toure who is also a former Barcelona player came to Manchester in 2010. He has been a huge success since coming here(Etihad) although evidence suggests he was brilliant at Barça too.
Toure has lot of fond memories from his time at Barcelona and doesn't particularly like the propect of having to face them. The midfielder says: "It's difficult because I don't really want to play Barcelona. It's a club I have a lot of respect for, a club which taught me a lot and where I have many friends who helped me,".
He also added : "I will play against these guys at the Camp Nou. It's the stadium where I always wanted to play and now I'll be coming back wearing a different shirt. I didn't want to play in front of the fans who gave me so much love and respected me, but that's football,".
The midfielder arrived in Barcelona from AS Monaco in 2007 and won two La Liga trophies and the Champions League in 2009. He formed part of a formidable Barcelona team under Pep Guordiola in his first season as a manager. That team went on to win the 'sextuple' in 2008/09 season although even a midfielder of Yaya's class found competetion for first team spot steep. He would eventually move to Manchester City for the same reason.
"At Barcelona it was my job to hold and organise. It was all about being focused and never losing concentration. Now I can drop into defence or join the attack. I was limited to playing in the middle at Barcelona. I like playing in England because it's an open league and very fast-paced," he explained.
At Manchester City Toure has been a huge success. He has won them the Premier League trophy but European success has been rather hard. In fact this is the very first season that City have been able to get into the knock out rounds of the Champion's League. He said "The first two campaigns were difficult, but now everything is going well. We have a manager who has a very good vision of how we should play. He understands football and teaches us a lot,".
City have managed to come out second level on points with Bayern Munich from the group stage. Barça however remains the ultimate team no matter what form they are in. Touré anticipates a "great match" against "a great club with an exceptional history". "What we want to do is to test ourselves because we have been so dominant at the Etihad but against Barcelona we will have to be careful because they have a fantastic [counter-attack] and the best player in the world on their team.
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