Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny feels the fact that most people believe his side are already out of the Champions League ahead of their clash against Barcelona on Wednesday night could be a big boost for the Gunners.
The Gunners will travel to Spain to take on one of La Liga's giants in the second leg of the Champions League Round of 16 tie at the Camp Nou on Wednesday, having lost the first leg 2-0 last month.
But the Catalan club, who won the Champions League last year, are the favourites to lift the cup in the present campaign as well.
Arsenal have already been knocked out of the FA Cup after losing 2-1 to Watford at the weekend; however, the centre-back insists that his side can pull off a surprise victory against the Spanish champions, owing to the north London outfit starting the game as underdogs.
“We don’t have pressure like in the first game, because we play against the best team in the world”, the French international was quoted as saying by Arsenal’s website.
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“Now we need to play the second leg away at Barca and we have nothing to lose. People always talk about the statistics and I think we have maybe a five per cent chance to qualify.
“You know when you play against the best players in the world, the best team with a good collective side, it’s very important for us. It can be very important if we can have a [good] result”, the 30-year-old further said.
“They have a lot of quality, they can have a lot of possession during the game and when they accelerate with their top players, they create chances.
“We need to play with freedom and believe in our quality because we did well during the first six months of this season. I don’t see why we can’t [play like that] against Barcelona and for the rest of the season”, he added.
