Denis Suarez, one of Barcelona's signings this summer, gave an interview to The Observer in which he praised his team-mate Leo Messi and also spoke about his time at Manchester City.

Asked about if Messi could do it on a wet Wednesday night at Stoke, he replied: “Of course he could. He’d pick up the ball, dribble past three players and hit it into the top corner.”

He also said Barcelona was an exemplary football club and that City want to copy them.

“Barça is a role model for every club: everyone wants to play like them," he explained.

“Barça hasn’t come about in two years. It’s years of building an identity, staying faithful to a philosophy, the kids in the academy playing like the first team. City will try to do that. I know, I was there: they showed me the project, everything they wanted to do. They have the structure and the ability. Now they’ve signed a coach who’ll help them do that."