FCBARCELONA.CAT

31.08.2008 21:27

Guardiola: "We have played badly"

Vanessa Forns

Pep Guardiola was not happy after seeing his FC Barcelona side lose the first game of the season against Numancia in Los Parajitos and admitted that the he felt that the team played badly.

After going behind to a goal from Mario after 13 minutes, the Blaugrana were unable to find a reply and, despite dominating the possession, lost for the first time on the opening day for 14 seasons. "We have played badly," the coach said. "We have not played well positionally. We have not done the right things. There are certain norms that need to be carried out and we did not do that. We had to win the game and we have not so because of our positional play.

"In this sense, every player has their role on the pitch and we have not done what we should have done. We went forward badly and we did not use the space that we had well at all. One good thing is that we did work hard."

Many chances

Barcelona dominated possession and had plenty of chance and Guardiola admitted it was difficult for his players. "Why we did not score is tough to sort out," he continued. "When a team puts ten players behind the ball is very complicated. We managed to create several chances, more than Numancia did. But maybe we can treat this as a good lesson and learn things from it."

"We will try to correct our mistakes"

Guardiola did not want to say anything bad about the opponents and made a point of congratulating Numancia on their performance. "They played very well at the back," he said. "They appear to be a good team. Now it is up to us to correct our mistakes and to play better in the next game. This is a long process and we wanted to start well but we have not. We now have to go on and improve and do better."