Lionel Messi picks his Champions League favorite for this season

This season, Barcelona are making the Champions League trophy their priority and are pushing the avoid the disappointments of the last three seasons.

For Lionel Messi, now is the time for the club to go for the title.

In a recent interview with Catalunya radio, Messi admitted: “It’s time. We have had three years in a row being knocked out of the Champions League and a hurt further still from last season’s result in Rome.”

“We have a spectacular squad and we can fight for it. We lost chances to win it in the Guardiola era against Inter and Chelsea. We were better than them and we could not get to the final because of small details and little things.”

Barcelona lat won the Champions League in 2015 and were knocked out by Roma, Paris Saint-Germain and Atletico Madrid at the quarter final stage in each of the last three seasons.

Barcelona have to be at their best if they are to have a fighting chance this season and the journey is far from an easy one.

Messi has picked Juventus as the Champions League favorites and according to the Barcelona man, the reason for this is the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo.

Leo added: “Real Madrid are one of the best teams in the world with a great squad (but) it’s evident that the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo makes them less good and makes Juventus (one of the) clear favourites to win the Champions League.”

Juventus signed Ronaldo from Real Madrid this summer in a €100m mega deal as the Portuguese ended his nine-year stay at the Spanish capital.