Athletic Bilbao veteran Aritz Aduriz is excited facing Barcelona in the Copa del Rey quarterfinal on Thursday.

The striker is to retire at the end of the season and he has spoken of how motivating such a knockout game is.

"It's amazing the motivation that this Copa del Rey and this match is provoking," he said on Tuesday.

"When you play football, you dream of playing matches like this.

"It's like a final because only one team progresses.

"This is the kind of opportunity I'm sure you look for when pre-season starts.

"It's a nice game and we'll take them on."

In the opening match of the LaLiga Santander season, Aduriz scored the only goal of the game as Barcelona were beaten 1-0 at San Mames and he reflected on that.

"I'll always remember that goal, but we can't focus on that," he said.

"This will be a different match and we can't remember the previous match.

"It'll also be a different game to the one we just played against Getafe."