Josep Guardiola has confidence in his players and is sure that Barça “won’t fail” in Tuesday’s clash with Chelsea. However, he believes the tie will be decided in London.
“With full tanks”. That’s how Guardiola described his players before this
Tuesday’s first leg in their semi-final clash with Chelsea in the Champions League at Camp
Nou. He says he is an optimistic person and believes in his players: “I know them and I
believe in them. I have a lot of faith in my team”.
“We’ll play a good game”
Guardiola is sure Camp Nou will be packed to the rafters to
support the side in their quest to reach the final on 27 May in Rome. The importance of the game
and the need to come up to the fans’ expectations means “the team won’t
fail”. “I’m convinced we’ll play a good game,” he said.
Stamford Bridge is a tricky venue
Barça need to score as many goals as possible and not let in any if they want to have a good
chance at Stamford Bridge. But whatever the result on Tuesday, Guardiola believes the tie will be
decided in London. “No-one goes to Stamford Bridge thinking they’ll have an easy
game,” he argued.
Loyal to the Barça way
When asked about how Barça would play against the Londoners,
Guardiola said that they knew they were up against a very strong team, “but as always
we’ll be going for it. That’s the way we always play. We try to do things well, and
respect our opponents. Sometimes it all goes well and other times not so well. Wherever we play we
always try to win the game. That’s how it’s going to be while I’m manager here.
The closer you are to the limits, the braver you have to be.”
Chelsea’s strengths
As for Guus Hiddink’s side, Guardiola highlighted things like their physical strength,
experience and danger in the air: “Chelsea impressed me when I watched them. They’ve
got some very powerful players with a lot of experience. I reckon it’ll be an evenly balanced
tie in which we have to control the game and attack in a disciplined way. Their players are a lot
more powerful than ours and are dangerous in the air.”
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“I’m like a kid with new shoes”
That’s how Josep Guardiola summed up how he feels in this his first season as Barça manager.
“I’m really happy to be able to experience this,” he said. “It’s a
dream and I don’t know if I’ll be able to repeat it. All eyes will be on us tomorrow
and that’s great. I’m really lucky in this respect. Whenever you go far in a season
there always comes a crunch time. We’re one of the four best sides in Europe and I’m
really happy to be able to play this semi-final against a legendary team.”