Pique insists Liverpool defeat gave Barcelona 'extra motivation'

Barcelona defender Gerard Pique insists last season’s Champions League defeat against Liverpool has added ‘extra motivation’ for this campaign.

The Blaugrana suffered a traumatic semi-final defeat against Jurgen Klopp’s side, blowing their 3-0 first leg lead from the Camp Nou before suffering a four-goal reverse at Anfield last May, stretching their run without a European trophy to four years.

“This will be my 12th season playing for Barcelona and obviously that is a lot of time,” Pique told reporters, a week ahead of the new La Liga season getting underway.

“But every year you have to try and renew your motivations and try to find new arguments to compete and to fight to win titles.

“I think that after the defeat against Liverpool last season, the extra motivation is very big.

“Because now it is two years in a row that we were very close to reaching the final of the Champions League, but it was not possible.

“Yeah it will be another tough season of course but we will be trying to win everything.”