Fabregas joined the La Liga champions in 2011, signing from Arsenal in a deal worth £35 million. The 26-year-old playmaker is enjoying a fine season at Camp Nou and tops La Liga's assists chart with 10 from 20 appearances. The Spanish international expects the clash against Premier League leaders City to be a tough tie, but believes Barca can progress to the quarter-finals.
“It’s going to be difficult," said Fabregas, speaking at the PUMA evoPOWER boot launch in Barcelona. "But also for them. They didn’t start very well this year but I think they now know what they want to do and how they want to play.
"They have a new coach and new players. I think they are playing very well. When they go forward I think they are a very good side and we have to look for their weakness and try to expose them.
"We have the right team, the right players and the right attitude to do it and I’m sure it will be a fascinating tie, but I’m confident we can beat them.”
Fabregas has won six trophies since rejoining his hometown team in 2011, including the La Liga title in 2012/13 and the Copa del Rey in 2012, and he expects the race for this season's title to go to the wire with three teams involved.
“The Spanish league is very competitive. Even if at the end of the day Real Madrid and Barcelona are the ones competing for the league, it is very difficult to go away from home and play any team in La Liga. It’s tough and we are conscious of that.
"Right now we have a very straight [serious] competitor in Atletico Madrid and we respect them a lot. We played against them the other day and you see that they know exactly what they want to do.
"They defend very well, they pressure you when you want to attack and then they get onto the counter-attack very, very fast. It’s going to be a really fascinating Liga and only the most consistent team will win it.”
Barcelona are currently joint top of La Liga, level on points with Atletico Madrid after 21 games and one point ahead of Real Madrid.
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