Valencia goalkeeper Diego Alves played an instrumental role in ensuring that his side visited Camp Nou not with a disadvantage when he saved Lionel Messi’s penalty in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semis that kept the match tied at 1-1. With the decisive second leg on Wednesday, Alves will have to be in topnotch form as Valencia look to grab a place in the final of the competition to be held in May.

“We will fight right up to the final seconds and will leave everything on the pitch,” said the Brazilian, adding that Valencia CF would have to “be near-perfect in order to achieve success.”

Guardiola’s side are seven points behind Real Madrid in La Liga which has resulted in talks about Barca not being as formidable as they were in the last three seasons. But Alves doesn’t believe that Barca’s recent run of draws and narrow victories means that it isn’t a great team anymore.  ”We don’t know what will happen, as Barcelona’s style and aggression leads to many chances over the course of ninety minutes,” he said. ”People seem to think that things are going badly for Barça, but that isn’t the case. They are still the best team in the world -even if they haven’t had as many chances recently.”

With the score tied at 1-1 after the first leg, Alves admitted that the home side had a slight advantage with an away goal. Nonetheless he remains optimistic. “Negativity doesn’t feature in our plans,” he said. “We want to get the best out of the team this Wednesday in order to continue in the competition.”

To give his side a shot, Alves will have to repeat the feat that he achieved at La Mestalla when he stopped Messi’s penalty. But Alves doesn’t want to find himself in that situation often. “I don’t want penalties!” he joked, adding that there are other ways Barca can score.  ”They are dead ball specialists and have surprised ourselves and Real Madrid on the back post from crosses, so we will have to be alert from those too.”

Valencia had a tough outing on Sunday in Madrid, where they drew against Atletico Madrid. Unai Emery’s men will have only two days to recover and travel to Barca. But Alves doesn’t think that the tough calendar is an excuse. “That’s the way the calendar is, and you just have to accept it,” he said. “There is a game on Wednesday and the excitement that we have will eliminate any fatigue from previous games.”

Source: www.valenciacf.com; Image credit: JOSE JORDAN/AFP/Getty Images