Barcelona forward, Lionel Messi has finally shared his thoughts on the transfer of his archrival Cristiano Ronaldo in the summer.
The Blaugrana captain said he was surprised that the Portuguese chose to leave Real Madrid in the summer for Serie A giants Juventus in the summer, and also believes Ronaldo leaving Real Madrid will make the Madrid giants weaker.
The Argentine and Ronaldo have been rivals for top European and world individual awards in recent years and the competition between the two was heightened by them playing for clubs who are arch-enemies. That changed this summer though with Ronaldo heading for Juventus.
"Obviously they (Madrid) are one of the best teams in the world, they have great players and squad but yes the departure of Cristiano from the squad makes them less strong," said Messi.
"It makes Juventus a clear favourite to win the Champions League due to the squad they had before and now with him on top. I was surprised by his decision, I did not think he would go from Madrid nor that he would go to Juventus. There were so many teams and I heard less about Juve but it is a very good team."
Messi admitted that Barcelona will be looking to improve this season in the Champions League.
"It is necessary because we have had three years where we have gone out in the quarter finals and the last was the worst of the lot due to how it happened," he explained.
"We are concentrating on this because it is possible, we have a squad where we can fight for this competition.
"In other years the Champions League evaded us, in the Guardiola era with Inter and Chelsea, due to small details. Each year the competition is more even with clubs investing more money to compete and bring in players. The two Manchester clubs, Chelsea, Madrid, us, PSG and several Italian clubs."

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