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Arsenal's Ozil urges teammates to be 'ice cold' vs. Barcelona

Reuters

Arsenal playmaker Mesut Ozil has some words of advice for his Gunners teammates ahead of Wednesday's unenviable second leg Champions League tilt with Barcelona.

It would appear the German international's English lessons are paying off, as Ozil conducted his first English-only interview with Nik Brumsack of Arsenal's official website.

"We have to go there and believe in ourselves," Ozil said.

"We saw against Barcelona, if we play our game, as we did in the first 20 minutes where we had a lot of chances against them, and score in the first half, we can do it."

Faced with an uphill task, down 2-0 to the Catalan giants following a first leg loss at the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal have to score at least twice to advance to the continental quarter-finals for the first time since 2009-10.

While the north London outfit are no strangers to Barcelona's famed Camp Nou, having last played there in 2011, Ozil, who spent four years with Los Blancos, knows all too well the perils of playing Luis Enrique's men in their own backyard.

"I’ve played there before. It will be very loud, the fans will support the team. Our goal has to be to make our game. The most important thing for us is to believe in ourselves."

"If we believe in ourselves and take our chances - last time we had chances but didn’t score - (we can do it). We have to be ice cold in front of goal. If we have a chance, we have to score against such a big team.

"Every player knows that against the biggest clubs, we have to show our quality. Every player wants to play against the best team, so we have to have the opportunity to come to the next round."

With a once-promising campaign in the midst of collapse on the heels of a FA Cup defeat to Watford and an 11-point gap behind Premier League leaders Leicester City, Arsenal's only chance at a trophy may lie in Wednesday's fixture.

Despite being down by a pair of goals, Ozil knows crazier things have occurred in European football.

"In football, anything can happen. Our goal has to be to win the game."

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