BARCELONA • Clement Lenglet ought to be unscarred by Barcelona's Champions League failure last season, but disappointment reverberates around the club to the extent that he feels it too.

"You can just sense around the place there is this scar," he told Agence France-Presse. "It still hurts."

The French defender described the pain of their 3-0 second-leg collapse against Roma, which saw Barca exit in the Champions League quarter-finals on away goals, like he was part of the team even though his move from Sevilla materialised only last summer.

While the 23-year-old joined a club that had won the La Liga title and the Copa del Rey at a canter, the humiliation in Rome has since hung over Ernesto Valverde's men like a dark cloud.

But Lenglet can be part of their recovery when Barcelona play Lyon in the first leg of their last-16 tie today and, after three years without making the final four, there is a sense of a team on a mission.

"We want to soothe the scar, do something beautiful so we can forget all about what happened," he said. "The players were gutted and everyone around the club was too. We have to show it was a mistake, that we can do better."

But Barca are not travelling to Lyon in the richest vein of form, with their drab 1-0 victory over Valladolid on Saturday following several equally uninspired displays in LaLiga and the Copa del Rey.

However, Valverde has played down the significance of his side going off the boil in recent games.

The Spaniard said: "Sometimes you cannot be brilliant in every game, but the team is ready to play at its very best (in France)."

Defender Gerard Pique, however, knows Lyon are a formidable force at home, having beaten both Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1 and Manchester City in the group stage.

The Spanish champions can be vulnerable when opponents break with pace and the centre-back warned his teammates that they had to "improve on Tuesday or we will suffer a lot".

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS

LYON V BARCELONA StarHub Ch213 & Singtel TV Ch112, tomorrow, 3.55am