Pedro hails return of fit-again Villa

Pedro has voiced his delight with David Villa’s return to match action in Barcelona’s 5-1 La Liga win over Real Sociedad at the weekend.

The striker came off the bench with 15 minutes to go, and capped his first appearances in an official game since breaking his leg at the Club World Cup in December 2011 with a well-taken goal in the 84th minute.

“Villa’s return is the best piece of news of the game. He scored a goal and it’s an absolute joy to have him with us,” Pedro told the Barca website.

Versatile attacker Pedro found the net too, and was pleased his own performance, as well as the Catalan club’s start to the new season.

“I’m content because we won and because I scored a goal. I helped the team. I feel great. The team is slowly starting to play at a high level and, in general, we’re playing really well.

“It’s great to start the season in this fashion, playing with our philosophy. I’m happy that we won and how we played the match.

“But we have a lot of games in front of us. This (season has) just started and we did our job, we started the Liga off on the right foot.”

Barcelona lock horns with Sampdoria in a friendly on Monday for the Joan Gamper Trophy.