Barcelona captain Puyol urges teammates to stay grounded after Stuttgart thrashing

Barcelona captain Carles Puyol has called on teammates to stay grounded after their thumping of Champions League opponents Stuttgart this week.

Barca head into the quarterfinals draw full of confidence after the 4-0 result.

"The euphoria is normal but we have our feet on the ground as it's already been shown you can have one bad day and be eliminated," said Puyol.

Winger Pedro added: "We are getting closer (to retaining their title) but it's difficult and we have to take it step by step.

"All the remaining teams will be difficult, we respect them and we have to be focused."

Barca go into today's draw for the last eight along with 2008 winners and last season's runners-up Manchester United, Arsenal, Inter Milan, Lyon, Bordeaux, CSKA Moscow and Bayern Munich.

Barca president Joan Laporta said: "I'm very pleased. It was important to get through to the quarters, the team deserved it. We are on the right path. The important thing is that we are continuing forward with high hopes and that we can make our dreams come true."

He added: "We have very difficult opponents ahead of us. We cannot think about the final, on Friday we will know who we will face and we will continue working as we have until now. They will be some hard-fought quarter-finals."