Barcelona: Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola has rejected suggestions his side are the team to beat in the Champions League ahead of the clash against AC Milan.
The Catalan club head into their first European match of the season on the back of an impressive campaign in the Uefa's competition last term.
After moving past Arsenal, Shakhtar Donetsk and Real Madrid, Barcelona went all the way and defeated Manchester United in the final 3-1 at Wembley to win their fourth Champions League crown in history.
As Barcelona prepare for their first Champions League encounter of the season, Guardiola tried to shake some of the pressure off his side by insisting it has been more than two decades since a club last won back-to-back titles in the competition.
"When we won [the Champions League] in Rome, I said the same thing I will say now: we are not favourites because no-one has been able to win two titles in a row in the last 20 years," Guardiola said at a press conference.
"AC Milan have done it and no-one has been able to repeat it during all this time, and this shows how difficult this competition is.
"In these three years we won two Champions League crowns and we reached the semi-finals once. We competed very well and now we want to do the same and go as far as possible."
The Spanish coach played down Saturday's 2-2 defeat Real Sociedad and stressed his men are aware of the hard task ahead.
"We have to quickly forget the previous matches, whether you win them or lose them, though it is always better to come off a victory," Guardiola noted.
"I have very few things to reproach about regarding what happened on Saturday. The players are grown men and they know Milan are coming, a great team backed up by their history.
"We always compete knowing we can draw or lose and that is why we have won so many titles in the last three years."
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