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Pjanic: 'CR7 prepared and attentive, Messi a genius'

  /  autty

Former Juventus and current Barcelona midfielder Miralem Pjanic ‘can only speak well’ of Cristiano Ronaldo but said Lionel Messi ‘is extra-terrestrial’.

Pjanic moved from Juventus to Barcelona in a swap deal including Arthur Melo during the summer and the two sides clash for the second time in the Champions League tonight.

The Bosnia-Herzegovina international spoke of the big duel between Ronaldo and Messi.

“I can only speak well of Ronaldo, as a person and above all as an athlete,” Pjanic said at a public event, according to Mundo Deportivo.

“He’s very prepared and attentive to all details.

“Messi is an extra-terrestrial. Every time I played against him, it was very difficult, almost impossible to stop him and now that I’m by his side, I see that he’s a phenomenon.

“Every time he has the ball, something happens. Either a goal or an assists, or an incredible pass. He’s a genius.”

Pjanic said Messi has put the troubles from the summer behind him and believes the Argentine is ‘focused and motivated’.

“Before arriving, I saw there were problems and that Messi was not well,” Pjanic added. “But now I see him very motivated and focused on his work.

“It’s up to us to help him and make him play even better. When you have a player like Leo on your team, you have to take advantage of it and try to win everything.”