Gerard Pique has dismissed concerns that Barcelona is the best-preferred team to win this year’s UEFA Champions League.

The Spanish International although did not rule the Catalan club out yet he believes that there are better teams that stands the chance of winning the elite UEFA Champions League.

Barcelona will play against Napoli in Italy on Tuesday night in the first leg of the knock stage before hosting the Italians in the second leg at the camp Nou.

Referencing the Italians game in the group stage of the tournament, Pique made known that Napoli can are a side that is hard to beat especially when they face challenging teams in the competition.

"We are not the out and out competition favorites, but I'm convinced that we do have a chance,” he said.

First up is Napoli, we will get through this tie and then see what happens."

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"Napoli are a side who have improved a lot in their recent games, it will be a very hard match. They have beaten Juventus and Liverpool, and we need to have a good first leg to avoid any scares."

Napoli will be without star defender Kalidou Koulibaly and striker Fernando Llorente on Tuesday night.

Koulibaly has not recovered from a knee injury, while Llorente is ill.

On the other hand, Gennaro Gattuso has been able to include Elseid Hysaj, Arkadiusz Milik and Hirving 'Chucky' Lozano, who had all been suffering with physical discomfort.

Speaking in the pre-match conference, the Italian insisted that his side can perform better if they quench Barcelona from finding their rhythm and lessening their threats in attack.

"We are playing against a great squad. It's not only Messi and we will have to do our best to limit them and put in a great performance. Messi is the best player in the world: I don't compare him to Maradona because Diego is everything. We don't compare them. For us, Maradona is sacred. Leo is the best right now."