Motta the destroyer

Nedved threat 
As the Catalan club approach their crucial UEFA Champions League quarter-final second leg at home to Juventus FC, the 20-year-old will seek not only to provide the creative hub of the side, but also to smother the threat of Pavel Nedved as he did during the 1-1 draw in Turin.

Ready for challenge 
Fresh from shackling Real Madrid CF star Zinedine Zidane at the weekend, Motta, who was born in Brazil but brought up in Italy, is ready for the challenge ahead. "When I started out with the Barcelona B team, my coach taught me how to play as a defensive midfielder," he said. "This helped me play in the centre of midfield rather than on the left."

'Totally comfortable' 
"Suddenly, I got all this praise for how I played against Madrid last Saturday and I don't even know if it was my best game," he added. "But I do know that I felt totally comfortable at the [Santiago] Bernabéu."

Bright spots 
In a season of domestic underachievement by Barça, Motta has been one of the few bright spots, compensating for the loss to injury of Phillip Cocu. The team's failure has come from an inability to prevent opponents imposing their game plan, but paradoxically youngsters such as Motta, Xavi Hernández, Gabri García and Javier Saviola have grown in stature through such adversity.

Midfield destroyer
Coach Radomir Antic, who since replacing Louis van Gaal has given the players more freedom to express themselves, believes Motta will not become pigeon-holed as a midfield destroyer. He said: "I asked Thiago to do a closing-down job on Zinedine Zidane and it was great to see what he achieved, but as soon as the destroying part had been done he was up trying to increase his contribution to the creative side of our game."

AS Roma interest 
Motta's eye-catching displays have not gone unnoticed across Europe with AS Roma expressing an interest in bringing him to Serie A. Midfield partner Xavi is confident his team-mate can go on to achieve great things. "Thiago is one of the most complete players in our squad - he always manages to keep the position the coach has asked him to take," he said. "He is skilful but the thing about him is that, despite his youth, he is also one of the most aggressive players in the team."

Makelele irk 
Madrid midfield player Claude Makelele certainly felt that Motta overstepped the mark at the Bernabéu, and at one stage pulled the Barça man's hair after another crunching tackle on Zidane. "I had to rescue my team-mate from the type of tackles Motta was putting in," the French international claimed.

No comfort
However, Motta retorted: "Why is it that Zidane has already got off with much worse this season than anything I did that night?" There is no doubt that such commitment to the Barça cause should make it an uncomfortable evening at Camp Nou for Juventus and Nedved in particular.