MADRID, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- FC Barcelona striker Leo Messi said on Monday that he believes it is time the club once again challenged for the Champions League title.
Although Barca won the Champions League in 2015, they have disappointed by their high standards in the past three years, losing to Atletico Madrid in the quarter-final in 2016, Juventus the following year, while 2018 saw them once again crash out of the last eight, losing on away goals to Roma after winning the first game of the tie 4-1 in the Camp Nou Stadium.
Those exits have been all the more painful given that bitter rivals Real Madrid have triumphed in Europe for the past three years
That defeat highlighted weaknesses in Barca's squad but after a summer which has seen the arrival of Arturo Vidal, Malcom, Clement Lenglet and Arthur, plus the fact that Phillipe Coutinho will be available this season in Europe, Messi believes Barca are once again candidates.
"It's time for us to win the Champions, we have a spectacular squad," he said in an interview on Catalunya Radio.
"I think it's time for us to win because we have had three successive seasons in which we have gone out in the quarter-finals and maybe the last (against Roma) was the worst of all because of the first leg result and how we played in the second leg," continued Messi.
"I think we have to aim for this as a club, as a team and for the squad that we have now. We have a spectacular squad and we can win it," insisted the Argentinean forward.
Messi said he was "not saying it for the sake of saying it: we have a squad that can compete and fight to win this competition," he concluded.
Meanwhile the club has confirmed that Malcom has suffered a twisted ankle in training and will be out of action for around a week.
