Despite the win over Racing, Pep Guardiola insisted that though he’d seen: “some good things”, the team “has to take a further step forward” if they want to win more titles.
The team bounced back well after last week’s slip up against Atletico Madrid and Guardiola
stressed the •defensive rigour” of his team against Racing and taken a number of
positives from the game, but stressed they also had to “take a further step forward”.
“We have to take another step forward, even though we did some things well. To compete
at the highest level we must play with more simplicity and improve our circulation. We’ll
have to play better in Germany to guarantee a result. It’s always important to get a win
after you’ve lost a game, but I’d insist we now need to go one better - that
wasn’t enough to win us the title”.
Ibra
Ibrahimovic was ruled out of the game before kick off as a precaution after noting a twinge
on the knock he picked up last week and Guardiola explained: “his ankle was swollen up, but
the doctors reckon it will go down soon. We’ll see how he gets on and see if we can get him
fit for Tuesday”.
“We won, but without playing brilliantly”
Guardiola believes that “despite not playing very much” Barca
“found ourselves ina good position. We had a lot of defensive rigour, but we missed rhythm
when we had the ball – we won, but without playing brilliantly”.
Home grown talent
The game finished with 9 home grown players on the Barca team and
Guardiola commented: “when I choose the team, I don’t think about where the players
come from – they are all Barca players. It’s an interesting fact and it’s not
easy to see so many home grown players in a team”.
Bojan
Bojan was singled out for praise by the boss: “I’m very happy with the work he
put in, he took a big step forward tonight and he’s showing me that he’s improving with
every day -he’s got some really good points. I want him to adapt himself to playing in new
positions. He’s still young and he’s come through really quickly. He needs to learn,
but I’m very happy that he’s taken a big step forward tonight”.
Henry
Guardiola also had words for Henry: “I hope his goal will give him a lift. The team
needs much more of him and I know he wants to give more”. As to Andres Iniesta, the boss
insisted: “he continues to play at a really high level”.
Thiago and Jeffren
Finally, Guardiola praised his youngsters: “Thiago has a lot of courage –
he’s got a lot to improve and he has to grow. Jonathon is very aggressive and tidy. He
doesn’t lose the ball and Jeffren let himself go tonight”.
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Laporta: “the 100 most successful games in the club’s history”
On the day that Josep Guardiola marked his 100th game in charge, President Joan Laporta commented:
“they have to be the most successful 100 games in the club’s history. Pep deserves
recognition for his talent and his sacrifice”. Asked as to which of the games he’d most
enjoyed, the President didn’t hesitate: “the 2-6 win at the Bernabeu”.
As to the Racing game, the President was happy with the team’s performance: “they
continue to perform at a high level. We showed talent, strength, sacrifice and a willingness to do
things properly”. Although he admitted that the goalscorers were important: “the main
thing is that we won and the team played well in general”.
Looking forward to Tuesday’s game in Germany, Laporta warned: “we have to be very
alert and keep our concentration – it’ll be cold and we’ll have to really fight
hard”.