In an interview with the Chinese sports paper Titan Sports, Gerard Piqué warned: “AC Milan are a competitive team with a great history behind them”.
Passion for China… and for table tennis
In the interview, Piqué repeated his passion for the Chinese national sport of table tennis, at which the national selector Liu Guoliang has said he has a good level, and also expressed his excitement about revisiting China this summer as part of the Club’s Asian Tour: “I was in China last year and I really loved the experience. It was great to see all the historic sites. I want to play a game of table tennis there and maybe train with the Chinese coach and improve my level”.
Gerard Piqué has given an interview to the Chinese sports paper Titan Sport, which has a circulation of one million, in which he expresses his confidence in the team’s ability to beat Milan, as well as his interest in the popular Chinese sport table tennis.
“We’ll fight for Tito”
Piqué is upbeat about the team’s chances against Milan at the Camp Nou next week: “AC Milan are a competitive team with a great history behind them and we know it’ll be a tough game. We come back to the Camp Nou two goals down and we have to fight back. We’ll attack from the off – which is our way of doing things – and we hope to win 3-0”.
The Catalan defender also expressed his support for Tito Vilanova: “we really miss him. We trust in him and we love him. It’s a difficult situation to be in, without the boss – it’s like a company without its chairman, but we will come through this. Tito is helping us from New York and the most important thing is his health. We’re not putting any pressure on him and we’ll be waiting for him till he gets better”.
Beckenbauer- a great example
Gerard Piqué mentioned Frank Beckenbauer as his great hero as a defender: “I’ve seen him on many videos, he’s a great player who won the European Player of the Year and he is a great example for me. I also liked Ronald Koeman as a kid- he scored that goal for Barça when they won the European Cup for the first time. I’ve learnt a lot from watching them all – and from AC Mialn’s Paolo Mandini”.
Piqué was also asked about his role in the team, as a member of the generation of 1987, alongside Leo Messi and Cesc Fàbregas) and he believes he has taken on the responsibility which that involves: “we have to be an example for the youngsters”.