'I was shivering before facing Messi'

Antonio Rukavina

EXCLUSIVE: Villarreal defender Antonio Rukavina who will do battle with the Argentine on Wednesday and has recalled his nerves ahead of their first battle

Footballers aren't usually forthcoming in revealing their weaknesses before heading into battle, but Villarreal defender Antonio Rukavina says he was "shivering and sweating" before facing Lionel Messi for the first time.
The two players will come up against one another again on Wednesday evening when the Yellow Submarine travel to Camp to take on Barcelona in the first leg of their Copa del Rey semi-final, with the Serbian confident he has overcome his earlier nerves.
Rukavina told Goal: "Nervous? Only ahead of my first game against Messi and Real Madrid. I was so nervous my hands were sweating and my body was shivering. Since then, every other match is just another special challenge for me."
Villarreal head into the game as the underdogs against a Barcelona side enjoying a rich vein of form that continued with a 5-2 victory over Athletic Bilbao on Saturday which cut the gap between the club and La Liga leaders Real Madrid to just a point.
But Marcelino Toral's men have enjoyed a positive campaign of their own and sit sixth in the table, and Rukavina believes the fact he and his team-mates are already being written off could ultimately work in their favour.
"Betting, fans, media, experts... they all say Barca is going to win, everyone says that except us," the 31-year-old continued.
"We see our chance in second leg and today we could even lose by one goal. Last year Barcelona beat us twice, but not easily. Our style of play doesn't suit them! And I am not the only one with that opinion. Every time we played them, we were very close, today might be the day we get reward for all those previous matches.
"Of course you can't attack them, you saw what happened to Athletic on Sunday when they tried it. We just have to be patient. We have to defend great and punish them with contra-attacks. Barcelona are very dominant at Nou Camp and the field is as big as an aeroplane runway, but playing away they are not that dominant."

Espanyol and Athletic Bilbao contest the other semi-final, with the winners of the two last four ties facing one another in the final on May 30.