Newcastle host the first-leg of the round of 16 tie at St James' Park on Tuesday night.
"I think it goes without saying he's a special talent," said Hall of Yamal. "I've seen him play in enough Champions League games, I know what he's about, so for me - if I was to be selected - I'd be really looking forward to it. I want to test myself against the best players in the world so there's no better opportunity to do so than the game tomorrow.
"My relationship with him is no different to any other player. I know the moments that he can produce, I know what he's like as a player, but I think they've got so many different threats in their team so to single one individual out, as good of a player as he is, would be not a smart thing to do.
"For us as the team we're just looking at their threats and how we can nullify them - and what we can do to win the game.
"We're really excited as a team - the Round of 16 is something that the club's not been in before and we know that it's a really important game for us as a club and for me as a fan. We're all really excited, and we're looking forward to hopefully putting a good performance in.
"We know the importance of tomorrow as a fixture in general. There's still enough games to go in the league that we can turn it around but we just need to put that to the side for now and focus on tomorrow's game, as that's the most important thing right now.
"It's going to be really difficult going to their place in a week or so, but for now there's such an important game tomorrow that we need to really just focus on what we can do tomorrow.
"When we do go there, we can hopefully take a positive result there. That's what we need to do."