Barcelona defender Adriano has stressed that the Catalans must improve defensively as he feels they concede too many goals from set pieces and on the counterattack.

The Blaugrana have kept only five clean sheets in 20 La Liga matches so far this season, and the Brazilian has urged his fellow defenders to step up their game.

“We have to pay more attention to counterattacks and set pieces, it’s very important to concede very few goals,” he was quoted as saying on the Barca website.

The wing-back also took the time to discuss the upcoming Copa del Rey match against Real Madrid, and insisted that the Camp Nou side must focus on playing their own game.

“The Clasicos are very tense matches and the team that’s better on the day usually wins. I really don’t care about how the teams are coming into Wednesday’s game.

“We shouldn’t pay attention to the controversy, we just need to focus on playing and scoring more goals that our opponents.”

Wednesday’s first leg is scheduled to kick off at 21:00CET.