FCBARCELONA.CAT

03.01.2009 23:15

Guardiola highlights team’s great shape

Vanessa Forns

Guardiola was happy with all of his squad after the first game of 2009. He admitted that “it is always hard” after the Christmas break, but that Barça had played a “very good game”.

After beating Mallorca 3-1 despite conceding the first goal, Josep Guardiola spoke about the difficulty of getting back down to work after the festive period. He felt his squad “struggled to get into the game” but improved “in the first 20-25 minutes of the first half and throughout the second half”. He added that “that’s the way things have been going all season”.

Potential banana skin

Josep Guardiola was aware that tonight’s game at the Camp Nou was not going to be as easy as it might have looked because “it is not easy to play against eleven such defensive players that play everything so tightly.” He was especially impressed by how well organised Mallorca were. “I sincerely think that we were much better than Mallorca, and we have managed to take one step further” and also feels that games like this “help a lot more than ones you win 5-0”.

Need for order

But what most satisfied Guardiola was the way team bounced back after Aduriz had put the visitors ahead. “We were patient, ordered, and relaxed enough to do it and ended up with the three points”. He also highlighted the importance of “continuing to maintain the order”.

Call for humility

But as ever, Guardiola called on everybody to stay humble for “we have not won anything yet. We haven’t even got half way there yet, we need to carry on winning points.” He was finally asked what he made of the refereeing in tonight’s game but merely replied that “I never comment on refereeing performances”.