"Roma is not the best possible draw for Barcelona"
Valverde's wary of the threat of the Serie A side
Ernesto Valverde doesn't agree that Barcelona were handed a favourable draw in the Champions League quarter-finals.
"I think in the last eight, whoever you draw is going to be a tough opponent," he said. "It's dangerous to conclude that [it's one of the easier draws]. Roma are a really difficult team to play against and anything can happen."
He added: "Roma are a tough opponent for a lot of reasons. Because of what they've done, what they've won, they're in the last eight of the Champions League, they have a very good coach, [sporting director] Monchi knows us very well, they beat Chelsea, knocked out Atletico Madrid...
"I have a huge amount of respect for them. All this about them being the best opponent for us to get, I don't believe that. They will be a very tough rival. I don't think they're the best side we could have drawn."
However, the Barça coach did confess there were two sides he wanted to avoid: "We didn't want Real Madrid or Sevilla, because we know them and they know us well, we wanted someone from another country."
