22.02.2010 19:51
Guardiola demands more
Sandra Sarmiento
Guardiola warned his players that they will have to be at their best against Stuttgart: “This standard won’t be enough to put us through to the quarterfinals”.
Guardiola is determined that Barça will not go out of the competition because of a lack of focus.
After the 4-0 defeat of Racing on Saturday, he warned the players: “We have to take another
step forward if we want to be champions”. Speaking on Monday evening ahead of the Stuttgart
clash, he assured reporters: “Scoring four goals against Racing has merit but it’s not
enough to compete with German football. We know this standard won’t be enough to put us
through to the quarterfinals. We have to recover our good form”.
The lesson of Lyon
Last season, Barça suffered during the first half hour of their match
against Lyon after Juninho scored from a free kick: "It was a very good experience. Perhaps our
toughest tie. Also, in recent years the champions have gone out in the R16. We have to fight
against the feeling that we will win everything. Everybody thinks we’ll clinch the tie in the
first leg and if we believe that we’ll have no chance of getting through to the
quarterfinal”.
Objective: score goals
Score and not concede. That would be the perfect match and Guardiola has a clear idea of what
he wants to see: “We have to score goals, we have to attack well, not run with the ball and
pass it about. Under Gross Stuttgart have great numbers when it comes to goals and results.
They’ve got a lot of interesting things”.
Christian Gross
Christian Gross is managing for the first time in the Bundesliga and
couldn’t have made a better start. Last season he took Basle into the Champions League and
Guardiola is clearly impressed: “When he was manager of Basle he surprised me in many things.
When there are good managers who know what they have to do it’s normal to obtain good
results”. Under the Swiss manager, Stuttgart have won 80% 0f their points in the Bundesliga:
“We’ll be playing against one of the best teams in Europe”.
Cruyff’s opinion
"The worse match of the Guardiola era". Johan Cruyff made the claim in a Catalan newspaper
and Guardiola accepts and shares the opinion: “He’s right to a large extent. To be
champions we have to play better. I knew that before the match and after the match. Johan is an
inspiration to me and one of the reasons why I am here”.