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• Villarreal

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• Robert Pires

Robert Pires does not see his role in Villarreal's defeat of Barcelona as revenge for last season's UEFA Champions League final and was just pleased to be playing again.

The Frenchman, who was a member of the Arsenal side beaten by the Blaugrana in Paris last season, was outstanding on Sunday evening and opened the home team's account in a 2-0 victory.

Revenge could well have been in his mind, but instead he was only delighted to make his first start since suffering a knee ligament injury that he sustained in pre-season.

"It was not about revenge for the Champions League final defeat last season for me," Pires said in a press conference.

"The last time that I started a competitive game was against Barca. We lost the final and it was an awful feeling, but that is now history.

"My desire was just to play again and to help the team and thankfully I was able to do that.

"I really enjoyed playing again after eight months."

Pires took his goal in style to cap a convincing display in his supporting role to striker Diego Forlan, a position that he admitted he had no problems adapting to.

"I felt fine playing behind the striker because I was involved a lot, although I was very tired at the end," he continued.

"That is normal though after playing for so long."

While the victory for the Yellow Submarine dented Barca's confidence, it lifted their own and has given the side hope that they can still qualify for the Uefa Cup.

Pires has had to watch the team he joined last summer from Arsenal from the sidelines for much of the campaign and admits to always believing in the true potential at the club.

"We need that winning mentality, where everyone believes that we can win. We talked a lot during the week about that and it was good," he explained.

"Now we have to look to win all the games that we can because we all want to play in Europe."

The win against the league leaders came as no great surprise to Pires, who revealed that he knew what he had to do when racing in on goal before beating Victor Valdes.

"We proved what I have always thought and that was that we can beat anyone when we play like this," he stated.

"We had some luck, that cannot be denied, but we also played very well.

"When the ball came to me I thought that I could not mess it up. It was my moment and that this was the game to do it in. I was fortunate to have that chance."